Incense and holy bread: the sense of belonging through ritual among Middle Eastern Christians in Denmark

Abstract

This article investigates how two Middle Eastern Christian churches in Denmark are constructed as particular sensorial spaces that invite attendees to participate in and identify with specific times and spaces. As with other Christian groups, rituals of the Sunday mass constitute a highlight of the activities that confirm the congregations' faith and community, but for members of a minority faith, these rituals also serve other functions related to identification and belonging. Inspired by a practice-oriented (Bell 1992) and phenomenological approach to placemaking (Cresswell 2002) through sensory communication (Leistle 2006; Pink 2009), the article examines constructions of religious identity and belonging through ritual practices. The findings stem from fieldwork carried out in 2014-2015 and are part of a larger crossdisciplinary study of Egyptian, Iraqi and Assyrian Christians in Denmark. We argue that in various ways, the ritual forms a performative space for memory and belonging which, through bodily practices and engagement with the materialities of the church rooms, creates a memory that reconnects the practitioners with places elsewhere. More specifically, we argue that the Sunday ritual facilitates the connection with God and the eternal, a place and time with fellow believers, and a relocation to remember and re-enter a pre-migration past and 'homeland'.

Domestication of Difference: Practices of Civic Engagement among Middle Eastern Christians in Denmark

“…Since 1996, the church has owned its own church premises outside Copenhagen. 46 As the opening example illustrates, Iraqi Christians also visit the Coptic Church. This can be partly explained by the lack of a Syrian Orthodox denomination in the Copenhagen area.…”

(In)visibility and the Muslim other: Narratives of flight and religious identity among Iraqi Christians in Denmark

“…While Assyrians tend to identify more strongly with their 'ethnic homeland' compared to Chaldeans, who for the most part identify simply as Christians from Iraq, common for most interlocutors across the different denominations is that Christianity is used to make sense of the experience of displacement. Religious spaces, rituals and communities are means of memory and belonging in a migration context, insofar as they facilitate the connection with God and the eternal, a place and time with fellow believers, and a relocation to remember and re-enter a pre-migration past (Sparre and Galal, 2018). In other words, the churches and the activities they facilitate seem to promote belonging understood as emotional attachment, or feeling 'at home ' (cf.…”

Rituals of migration: an introduction

“…Another shared approach concerns the sensory experience of ritual. While this generally seems to have received little attention in ritual analysis, rituals are often experienced through senses of sound, smell, taste and touch that not only make them bodily experiences, but also invoke memories and imaginations (Leistle 2006;Sparre and Galal 2018). Ritual sensation and effervescence can be important on the individual level, as well as constitutive of a transnational spiritual family (Rytter) and the transitional experience of being inscribed in a national community (Damsholt).…”

“…Placemaking can also be carried out through more mundane, less spectacular activities in semi-public or private spaces. Focusing on the 'rather unnoticed' rituals of Sunday Communion among Middle Eastern Christians in Denmark, Sara Lei Sparre and Lise Paulsen Galal (2018) show how the church comes into being through sensory communication and bodily practices. Sensorial experiences such as smelling incense, tasting bread or listening to spiritual music allow churchgoers to connect with God, their own religious community and the 'homeland' at one and the same time, hence relocating the participants in both time and space.…”