What would a church service or the reverend/priest be be like in Roanoke / Colonial Americas?

by songoficeandwifire

I'm on a second edit of a fictionalized account of the disappearance of the Roanoke Colony (1587 - 1590). I'm particularly interested in what a church service might have been like at the Roanoke colony and what impact religion would have on the struggling settlers as their society is threatened.

Things like....

  • Would it be realistic to have a reverend (or priest) give a 'fire and brimstone' service? He's one of the antagonists in my story so looking for ways to realistically portray him in a not-so-gentle light.
  • Do you think as the colony deteriorated they would be more intensely religious or relax a bit?
  • Any other fascinating details about colonial religious practices that are cool to know? I'd love to know anything that I can use to paint a richer, more vivid world. Random facts or stories can work great!

Thanks so much to your brilliant brains in advance.

As an FYI if it helps contextualize: My lead is a young woman who sailed to Roanoke and is engaged. She begins the tale ultra timid and extremely repressed by her family, society and religion but in the (fictionalized) wake of the events becomes increasingly self reliant and strong. I believe that her faith would be a very important part of this journey. I see her getting into clashes with the reverend/priest as she begins to buck tradition and try to save her family and herself as things go down the drain.

EdHistory101

Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your novel, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists, based on past experience: some aspiring novelists have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.

Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.