Paper short abstract:

Autoethnographic method gives a unique possibility to do research in the Orthodox funerals otherwise so difficult to access especially during the COVID-19. What is the role of the singer compared to the priest, when it is actually the cantor who gives voice to all the funeral service?

Paper long abstract:

The autoethnographic approach is a new way to provide information about the Eastern Orthodox funeral rite and it is a delicate research method for doing fieldwork in the funerals otherwise so difficult to enter as an outsider – especially during the pandemic of COVID-19. I am a cantor in the Orthodox Church of Finland and a cultural researcher, and these two positions give me a rare possibility to see and study the funeral rites from inside.

In this paper I will ask how does singing the liturgical texts construct the embodied experience of the funeral rite? While the priest is the main celebrant of the funeral, I want to examine how the cantor actually gives voice to the funeral rite, expressing, through liturgical texts, the lament of the deceased, the mourning of the bereaved, and the comfort and hope offered by the teaching of the Church about the eternal life after death. In my study will also interview other cantors about their experiences of singing in the funerals and I will compare their experience to mine.

Being the subject and the object of the study as a researcher and as a singing cantor will definitely alter my way of understanding the funeral rite, my own behaviour in it and also the experiences of the other cantors. Reflecting this in my autoethnographic writing and thereafter in this paper is an important part of the study.