No abstract

Increasingly more older people are now being cared for in their own homes. Furthermore, it has become more common that people stay at home to receive end-of-life care. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), we analyzed the religious experiences of older people (aged 65+). We answered these questions: What kind of religious experiences do older people have when death is approaching? What does this tell us about their religious coping? As IPA is based on the in-depth analysis of small amounts of homogenous data, we analyzed five interviews with older people who were dying. We identified three main themes. First, religious experiences are relational, that is, deeply rooted in personal relationships. Second, religious experiences are real and can provide both struggles and comfort in the last stage of life. Third, the experience of encountering one’s mortality and planning for one’s death was calming; while many had unclear views on the afterlife, the idea of continuing bonds after death was comforting. More open discussion on religious matters, death, and dying would be welcomed as part of home-based end-of-life care.

Bereavement is an ongoing process of negotiation and meaning-making in which widows and widowers make sense of the changed nature of their relationship with their deceased spouse. We analyzed the experiences of meaning in life among older widows and widowers (aged 65+) using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA; see Smith et al. in Interpretative phenomenological analysis: Theory, method and research, Sage, 2009), with the following question: How do widows and widowers search for meaning through continuing and/or transforming their bond to their deceased spouse? The results demonstrate that some of the widowed persons sought meaning through rituals or various means of after-death communication with their deceased spouses. Other participants transformed the bond, for example, through clearing out their deceased spouse’s belongings or a process of reconciliation. Many continued and transformed the bond simultaneously, which shows that negotiation of the relationship after the death of a spouse is an ongoing process in which both continuity and change are present. The experience of a violation of meaning in life affected the participants’ capacity to continue their bond with their deceased spouse.

Hautatahdossa on lain mukaan kyse vainajan autonomian ja katsomusten kunnioittamisesta.  Tämä artikkeli analysoi läheisensä menettäneiden kertomuksia hautatahdosta ja siitä, miten he ovat pyrkineet huomioimaan vainajan tahdon hautajaisten suunnittelussa ja hautauspaikan valinnassa.  Artikkelin aineisto muodostuu kolmentoista surevan läheisen haastatteluista, jotka on analysoitu temaattisella sapluuna-analyysillä. Tulokset osoittavat, että osassa tapauksista vainaja oli selkeästi ilmaissut toiveensa hautaussuunnitelmista, mutta osassa tapauksista kyse oli oletetun hautatahdon ilmaisuista. Katsomukset vaikuttivat vainajan hautatoiveisiin erityisesti silloin kun hänellä oli ollut selvä uskonnollinen tai ei-uskonnollinen vakaumus. Vainajan, surevan läheisen ja muiden läheisten relaatioilla oli iso merkitys vainajan hautatahdon seuraamisessa. Tutkimuksemme osoitti, että uusperhetilanne hankaloitti vainajan hautatahdon noudattamista erityisesti niissä tilanteissa, joissa läheisillä oli erilaisia tulkintoja vainajan toiveista. Mitä selvemmin vainaja on ilmaissut toiveensa hautausrituaalista, hautatavasta ja hautapaikasta läheisilleen, sitä helpompi hautajaiset on järjestää. Tämä säästää läheisiä turhilta riidoilta ja mielipahalta.

The article discusses the recognition of same-sex partnerships in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF). The main focus is on the experiences of recognition and misrecognition of same-sex couples when the couples have asked for a prayer on behalf of their registered partnership. The findings of this study confirm that the researched experiences of recognition have two dimensions, vertical and horizontal. Vertical recognition deals with institutional recognition and experiences with the sacred. Horizontal recognition entails experiences of interpersonal recognition. Narrated experiences often contained both horizontal and vertical dimensions of (mis)recognition. Recognition is a social phenomenon. Participants of the study had two distinct social contexts for recognition. One is the more loosely defined “rainbow community”, the other the formally authoritative, institutional ELCF. Most of the interviewees had positive experiences of recognition from the informal community but mainly negative experiences of misrecognition from the institutional ELCF. The difficult balancing between the conviction of the equal human dignity of each individual and the understanding of marriage as a social category for heterosexuals only led to same-sex couples’ experience of not being treated as equal members of the church. The study affirmed the importance of experiences and feelings as indicators in identifying a valid struggle for recognition.