On the funeral day (and afterwards)

When a funeral includes a funeral service (a sacred rite of the church), a pastor leads the service in an order given in the worship manual of the church (also in the Internet).
Bilingually in Finnish and English
Swedish texts  are in a long PDF file on pages 146-172.

There is also a longer order of service that can include Holy Communion, but that is seldom used.  The manual also has an agenda (order of service) for interment when an urn is buried or when a body is buried far away from the place where the funeral service was held.

Nowadays in Finland funeral services are seldom held outdoors by an open grave, although that is possible if the number of people attending is not very large and the weather is not very severe.  Usually the funeral service is held indoors, and if the body is to be cremated there isn't much choice!  Funeral services can be held indoors in a church or chapel or parish hall.

A funeral held in a church or chapel often includes more than the funeral service itself.  It is customary that relatives and friends lay flowers by the coffin, often reading a verse from the Bible or some lines of a poem as they do so, but this can also take place outside at the grave (or the place where ashes are to be deposited later).  When done inside, this presentation of flowers and last greetings can take place either before or after the funeral service.  Hymns and other music are also a part of the occasion.  Talk with the pastor about the order and the hymns; usually two or three hymns are sung.  Churches and chapels are equipped with hymnals, but sometimes relatives make programs for funerals, and words of hymns can be printed there.

If the funeral service takes place by a cemetery and the body is to be buried in the ground, relatives and friends can carry the coffin directly to the grave.  If the grave is far away or the body is to be cremated, the coffin can be carried out to a vehicle for transportation or left in place to be removed later.  (In Vantaa we do not have chapels with elevators or assembly lines to take the coffin out of sight when the ceremony is over.)

After leaving the church or chapel or cemetery, those attending the funeral usually gather for a meal or some other kind of gathering (muistotilaisuus in Finnish), whatever has been arranged by those who planned the funeral.  Condolences and greetings sent to the funeral in writing are read at this occasion, and speeches other than the pastor's homily are delivered here, not during the funeral service.

When a person dear to you has died, it can be helpful to meet in a small group with others who have been recently bereaved.  Congregations organize ”sorrow groups” like this led by a pastor or diaconal worker.  Some months after the death and funeral of your loved one you can join such a group if you are not hindered by a language barrier.

When a member of a Lutheran congregation has died, the death is announced in a Sunday service as an item of public prayer.  Once a year on the evening of All Saints' day each congregation holds a special service to remember all those who have died during the year and those left behind with sorrow.

Christianity does not protect us from grief, but in the church our faith means that we need ”not grieve as others do who have no hope.  For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.”  (The apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, New Revised Standard Version of the Bible)