Karnevalesk gudstjänst: Barns plats i kyrkans liturgi

Questions concerning children’s place in a worshipping community keeps reemerging in the Church of Sweden, as well as in other churches. Often ideals of inclusivity and children’s participation collide with ideals of a solemn, calm and “adult” liturgy. Children might simultaneously be seen as carriers of hope and a special proximity to God and as disturbers: they make noise and are “too young to understand”. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the development of theory within the field of practical theology, focusing on children and liturgy. An important aspect of this is a critical reflection on the power relations between children and adults. The aim is a practical theology where children in a worshipping community take part as actors. The study is situated within practical theology and builds on an understanding of theory production as a transformative and future-oriented theological practice. The starting point is the question of how children’s experiences of liturgy may contribute to practical theological theory. The study builds on field study material from interviews with children and adults in five parishes in the Church of Sweden, as well as observations from worship services where children take part. The material is analysed by using a combination of insights from critical childhood studies and liturgical theology. The results from this analysis are then put in relation to theoretical perspectives from practical and ethnographic theology, as well as the literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, mainly read through a children’s literature lens. The themes of the dissertation include (1) the relationship between practical/ethnographic theology and liturgical theology, (2) a liturgical theological approach to children as symbols, (3) ecclesiology and the worshipping community and (4) the relationship between Bakhtinian carnival theory and liturgy. The study contributes to theory production in practical theology by challenging liturgical theology with perspectives from children worshippers, as well as theoretical and methodological insights from other fields.