New Archbishop of Turku and Finland Elected

Bishop Kari Mäkinen was elected on Thursday 12 March to be the next Archbishop of Turku and Finland, to succeed Archbishop Jukka Paarma who retires in June. Bishop Mäkinen has a doctorate in theology, and has been a parish priest, a professor of Church History and since 2006, Bishop of Turku. He is married to a priest, the Revd Eija Mäkinen. They have four children.

The vote was a run-off election between the two top two candidates of a previous round. Bishop Mäkinen, thought to be the more liberal candidate, won 593 votes while the runner-up Dr Miikka Ruokanen, Professor of Dogmatics at the University of Helsinki won 582.

Within the Archdiocese of Turku, the Archbishop and Bishop both act with full episcopal authority under an agreed division of pastoral responsibility for oversight of distinct deaneries. In addition, the Archbishop acts as the chairperson of several national church bodies including the General Synod, the Church Council and the Bishops’ Conference. The Archbishop, as chairman of the Board of International Relations, is also responsible for many international duties.

80% of the Finnish people are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland which is organised in 9 dioceses. The Church of England is in communion with the Finnish Church through the Porvoo Agreement. We have extensive work covering 9 cities in the country. The chaplain, the Revd Rupert Moreton, is based in Helsinki and is assisted by three other licensed clergy, three readers and many priests of the Finnish Church who have Permission to Officiate, under the Porvoo Agreement. Information on the Anglican Church in Finland can be found here.

The frrst bishop in Finland is believed to be St Henry, an Englishman, who died in 1156. He is the country's patron saint.

The new Archbishop will be installed on 6 June.

Comments

  1. Varnas23 May 2010 at 13:14

    I would like to get in contact with the new archbishop of Finland because I was listening to a speech of him on the radio were he said that the church is for human rights and because I have no other place to go.
    The police in Finland made forgeries, lied under oath and lied about evidence and I was convicted based on " motive" alone ( according to my lawyer )My computer art worth 42.000 Euro was taken by the police and I was fined 21.000 Euro for libeling a black man from the google group profile da-hui(ad)telex.co.uk
    I was in jail when da-hui(ad)telex.co.uk posted and could not have been that poster nor is the domain telex.co.uk my domain
    I wrote 150 emails to the Finnish press and human rights organizations but never got a reply.
    Perhaps the archbishop can help me.
    My name is Dimitrios Xenos and he can find my address in Turku

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown15 October 2010 at 10:13

    Accept my warm wishes for getting elected as Archbishop of Turku and Finland.It was really close competition between you and Mr Miikka Ruokanen. Many people were expecting Ruokanen as Archbishop. But now Turku cathedral is blessed by your path and we hope to see a great changes ahead.This election resulted in increase nos of tourist visitors to see the new archbishop.
    turku finland tourism

    ReplyDelete

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