ABSTRACT
An "emotional" worship service, like a funeral, carries with it a proper definition of itself. According to the understanding which Eastside Chapel members have of the Sunday morning service, it provides an occasion for God to meet with his people in a time of celebration and praise. This definition of the situation carries with it implications for the particular emotions that congregants should feel throughout the service. Norms not only operate internally upon the feelings of the congregants but upon their external behaviours as well. These standards of appropriate behaviour cannot be reduced to the internal feelings of the participants-as both Goffman's observation on funerals and Durkheim's discussion of mourning rites illustrate quite clearly. From the above discussion it is apparent that "emotional" worship services are not simply a matter of an energetic preacher or a particular style of music - the congregational response plays a crucial role facilitating the production of "emotion".
