Seite - 173 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Band 07/01

In the Orality/Aurality of the Book | 173www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 173–190 Christos Kakalis In the Orality/Aurality of the Book Inclusivity and Liturgical Language Abstract This article examines the role of language in the constitution of a common identity through its liturgical use at the Eastern Orthodox church of St Andrew’s in Edinburgh, Scotland. Open to individuals who have relocated, the parish has a rather multination- al character. It is a place of worship for populations that consider Christian Orthodox culture part of their long-established collective identity and for recent converts. Based on ethnographic research, archival work and theoretical contextualisation, the article examines the atmospheric materiality of the written text as performed by the readers, the choir and the clergy. This soundscape is an amalgam of different kinds of reading: prose, chanted prose, chanting and antiphonic, depending the part of the Liturgy being read. The language of the book is performative: the choreography and its symbolisms perform the words of the texts and vice versa. Additionally, the use of at least four languages in every service and two Eastern Orthodox chanting styles in combination with European influences expresses in the most tangible way the religious inclusivity that has been carefully cultivated in this parish. Through closer examination of literary transformation processes, I demonstrate the role of liturgical language in the creation of communal space-times that negotiate ideas of home and belonging in a new land. Keywords Role of Language, Christian Orthodox Culture, Religious Books, Transnational Religious Community, Religious Soundscapes, Atmospheric Materiality, Performance, Belonging Biography Christos Kakalis holds a PhD in architecture from the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and is a Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the School of Ar- chitecture, Planning and Landscape of Newcastle University. His work focuses on the embodied experience of architecture and the natural landscape with special emphasis on the role of atmosphere. He is the author of the monograph Architecture and Silence (Routledge, October 2019). He has edited (with Emily Goetsch) Mountains, Mobilities and Movement (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), (with Mark Dorrian) The Place of Silence: Architecture/Media/Philosophy (Bloomsbury, December 2019) and (with Martin Beattie and Matthew Ozga Lawn) Mountains and Megastructures: Neo-Geologic Landscapes of Human Endeavour (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). DOI: 10.25364/05.7:2021.1.9