**1. Introduction**

Pastoral theology emerges from the particularities of pastoral care for a given community. When the given community understands itself as distinct from the dominant culture, it is essential to engage with the insights of ecology, sociology, and economics, in planning, leading, and analyzing public liturgy; for example, an Appalachian multicultural worship in the context discussed in this essay.

Heather Murray Elkins and Jeffrey S. Allen have explored the complexities of Appalachian intra-faith in West Virginia—a region that is demographically monoracial with 93.05% White population (World Population Review 2022). The West Virginia Council of Churches has been providing a sustainable intersection for ecumenical and multiracial worship experiences in diverse contexts and occasions in the regional community. Thus, the case study and the commentary in regards to the works of the West Virginia Council of Churches offer insights into liturgical pastoral care for communities, especially dealing with ecological and economic trauma.

The roles of narrative and orality in Appalachian culture are essential, since it is shaped by multiple histories of trauma, lament, and healings from them. This approach requires an analysis of speeches and addresses, as well as the performative aspects of the ritual. We are using this approach to ritual as it is outlined in *Ritual and Its Consequences*. The authors argue that:

Ritual always operates in a world that is fragmented and fractured. Moreover, the subjunctive world created by ritual is always doomed ultimately to fail—the ordered world of flawless repetition can never fully replace the broken world of

**Citation:** Elkins, Heather Murray, and Jeffrey S. Allen. 2022. Public Lament and Intra-Faith Worship in an Appalachian Context. *Religions* 13: 620. https://doi.org/10.3390/ rel13070620

Academic Editor: Eunjoo Mary Kim

Received: 30 May 2022 Accepted: 24 June 2022 Published: 4 July 2022

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experience. This is why the tension between the two is inherent and, ultimately, unbridgeable. Indeed, this tension is the driving force behind the performance of ritual: the endless work of ritual is necessary precisely because the ordered world of ritual is inevitably only temporary. The world always returns to its broken state, constantly requiring the repairs of ritual (Seligman et al. 2008, p. 30).

This view of the *ritual and the tragic* of the world will undergird this essay, as it provides a lens for the particular relationship between coal and communal identity in the Appalachian community (ibid.). One question needs to be addressed early in this essay: why would a study of the memorial service for coal miners in Appalachia—a region whose population is often described as "Protestant" and "white"—belong to a collection of essays on multicultural worship? Our response to this question involves deconstructing some commonly held assumptions about Protestantism, secular/religious public disaster memorials, and Appalachia itself. Central to this analysis is the definition of culture that comes from the work of David E. Whisnant, in his *All That Is Fine: The Politics of Culture in an American Region*. He states:

Culture is "the entire range of belief, attitude, value, characteristic behavior, posture, and so on, which makes up the individual and collective identity of an ethnic, regional, or socioeconomic group..." This understanding of "culture" is the cornerstone by which a community's ritual actions in response to a traumatic loss of life are measured. It encompasses "social organization, judgments about family and community structure, forms of worship, school curricula, entertainment, and cultural nuances that inhere in such things as bodily postures and rhythms, vocal cadence, and interactional style" (Whisnant 2009, p.12).

This definition of culture is interlinked with our understanding of ritual. (Seligman et al. 2008, p. 180) include non-Protestant traditions, as well as alternatives to social scientific understandings, as factors in considering the meaning of ritual. This view assumes "a world that is fragmented and broken" (ibid., p. 30). The language of lament shapes this region's worldview, from which songs and laments can be understood as the deep grammar or the accent of this community. In his address, then-Vice President Biden summarizes and critiques the sacrificial history of coal miners: "No one should have to sacrifice their life for their livelihood" (Biden 2010). The "should" is understood, however, as the reality of coal mining that is regrettable but required.

Who has the right to describe the life rites and rituals of Appalachia? This is a critical question for this region and its people. Julian Murchison discusses the *etic* aspect of ritual participation, and provides the framework for analyzing cultural phenomena from the perspective of one who does not participate in the culture being studied (Murchison 2010). Her critical perspective is significant for recognizing the distinctiveness of Appalachian identity, particularly, regarding the complex culture of coal communities. Failure to recognize that one's perspective is *etic*, that of non-belonging, has contributed to misreading of Appalachian culture, which contributes to an economic colonization of people, resources, and region. In contrast, an *emic* perspective comes from voluntarily locating oneself within a culture, religion, or regional identity, and being recognized as one belonging to the culture. We are using the term 'belongingness' to describe this emic perspective. The emic perspective is not a given, however. It is an interlacing relation; a patchwork quilt perspective. In other words, this belongingness does not presume a uniformity of perspective, or guarantee that the community will consistently recognize one's credentials of belonging.

Sensitivity to the complexity of cultural identities of Appalachia is required in order to prevent the re-inscribing of negative and romanticized stereotypes. West Virginia is the only state that is included in its entirety in the formal definition of Appalachia. Its religious identity has been "portrayed in stereotypical terms that focus on the archetype called the 'mountain preacher' who oscillates between two extremes with unfortunate and unrealistic characterizations: as either a strict, suffocating Calvinist or an emotionally unstable fanatic with a penchant for serpent handling" (McCauley 1999, p. 105). However, this reading erases its religious and cultural diversity and adds to the marginalization and simplification of West Virginian identity. Even the term "Protestantism" obscures the reality of nondenominational mountain churches. In addition, West Virginia has a "considerably lower rate of religious affiliation than for the nation as a whole" (Pritchett 2006), Historically, religious and cultural mainline "missions" to the region have projected a homogeneous culture for their own ends. Cultural stereotyping has also served outside forces of exploitation, be they energy companies or pharmaceutical corporations.

It is essential to recognize the impact of industrialization in forming the religious diversity in the region and the state. The nation's critical need for natural resources is summarized in the phrase, "King Coal." This need for coal in heating homes, powering trains, and fueling battleships led to open-door European immigration policies supported by coal owners. Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Jews, and Muslims were recruited, and their numbers were added to those who came for work in the lumber mills, the glass factories, the steel mills, and the gas and oil reserves.

The industrialization of the region can be mirrored in the diversity of migrants drawn by the railroad and coal fields. East European Jews. Roman Catholic Italians, Poles, and Lutheran Germans joined the first-wave immigrants: the Scots and Irish. Nearly a tenth of the people in West Virginia were immigrants following WWI, but most of these were in the state's three major coal regions. Governor Manchin's family was among those Italian immigrants who settled in the Fairmont area, finding work in the coal fields. In the Fairmont region, "the entire range of Americanization impulses were evident.... The hub of malevolent, pragmatic, and benevolent Americanization impulses which were not present elsewhere in the state." (Lewis 2002, p. 262).

Industrialization following the Civil War transformed the state from a primarily subsistence economy to a dependent extraction economy, but the transition could only take place through the contributions of immigrant laborers. The concentration of corporate power of coal, railroads, and politics can be seen in the "Fairmont Ring", a small group of politicians and coal-owners with connections to companies such as Standard Oil, the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, Fairmont and Consolidated, and Monongah Coal Companies, which were powerful enough to purchase U.S. Senate seats in the early 1920s. (Drake 2001, p. 152).

The contribution of Black coal miners to the conversion of West Virginia's subsistence economy to an industrial base was substantial, but not often recognized. Between the 1890s and early 1930, Black miners made up over 20 percent of the state's total coal mining labor force. Southern Black families migrated to the state, drawn by the coal operators' offer of better jobs and the families' hope for fewer Jim Crow laws.

One memorable migrant to the Mountain State was Booker T. Washington, who recorded the cost of the American Dream of mining. "Work in the coal mines I always dreaded ... There was always the danger of being blown to pieces by a premature explosion of powder, or of being crushed by falling slate. Accidents from one or the other of these causes were frequently occurring and this kept me in constant fear" (Washington 1901, pp. 137–38).
