Att komplettera eller konkurrera? Om prästers och begravningsentreprenörers arbetsuppgifter och ansvarsområden

Abstract

Funeral directors and priests — do they complement each other or do they compete? Based on field studies at funeral directors’ and a survey among priests in the Church of Sweden, conflicts between the two parts are analyzed. The funeral directors mainly complain about the availability of the priests, while the priests think that too many decisions concerning the funeral service are made at the funeral directors’. The funeral directors seem to have acquired a larger and more important role than before.

Today a division of the work concerning the funeral is made where the funeral director is responsible for the practical part, and the priest for the liturgical — something that can be seen as a complement of each other. This view can be strongly criticised from a scholarly view. Acts, music, words and props together form the rite. At conflicts this becomes evident. The parties turn out to be rivals on the field that the funeral service constitutes.