Prayer and Worship
Summary
Public prayer or worship as a form of witness — Sharp’s method 20 (Prayer and worship), one of the 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, classified among the symbolic public acts in the nonviolent-protest-and-persuasion category [source: commons-198-methods].
Body
Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action catalogues method 20 as Prayer and worship, classified among the symbolic public acts of nonviolent protest and persuasion alongside displays of flags, wearing of symbols, displays of portraits, and paint as protest [source: commons-198-methods]. In the original Sharp taxonomy, the symbolic public acts subcategory immediately follows the group representations subset and precedes the pressures on individuals, drama and music, processions, honoring the dead, public assemblies and withdrawal and renunciation subcategories that make up the rest of the nonviolent protest and persuasion category [source: commons-198-methods].
The method encompasses public prayers at vigils, faith-led marches and rallies, sit-ins inside places of worship organised as witness, and the practice of holding religious services at protest sites. Sharp’s placement of the method among symbolic public acts (rather than in the drama and music subcategory) signals that the religious form is treated as witness and presence rather than as performance.
Worked examples
- new-brunswick-burnt-church-first-nation-campaign-to-defend-their — the Burnt Church (Esgenoôpetitj) Mi’kmaq campaign in New Brunswick, where prayer and ceremony were central forms of witness in a multi-year fish-harvest defence.
See methods-of-nonviolent-action for the broader method library.
FAQ
What is prayer and worship as a tactic?
Public prayer or worship as a form of witness — Sharp’s method 20 (Prayer and worship), one of the 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, classified among the symbolic public acts in the nonviolent-protest-and-persuasion category [source: commons-198-methods]. The method encompasses public prayers at vigils, faith-led marches and rallies, sit-ins inside places of worship organised as witness, and the practice of holding religious services at protest sites.
Where does prayer and worship sit in the 198 Methods taxonomy?
Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action catalogues method 20 as Prayer and worship, classified among the symbolic public acts of nonviolent protest and persuasion alongside displays of flags, wearing of symbols, displays of portraits, and paint as protest [source: commons-198-methods]. In the original Sharp taxonomy, the symbolic public acts subcategory immediately follows the group representations subset and precedes the pressures on individuals, drama and music, processions, honoring the dead, public assemblies and withdrawal and renunciation subcategories.
Why is the method placed among symbolic acts rather than drama and music?
Sharp’s placement of the method among symbolic public acts (rather than in the drama and music subcategory) signals that the religious form is treated as witness and presence rather than as performance [source: commons-198-methods]. The distinction matters because the tactical grammar (no clapping, no applause, sustained silence) follows from the witness framing rather than the performance framing.
What is a worked example of the method?
The Burnt Church (Esgenoôpetitj) Mi’kmaq campaign in New Brunswick is a worked example, where prayer and ceremony were central forms of witness in a multi-year fish-harvest defence [source: commons-198-methods]. The method travels across faith traditions when the campaign treats the religious form as witness and presence rather than as performance.