The Lutheran Church of Sweden and its first female bishop, Antje Jackelen.

The Church of Sweden — to which 2/3 of the country’s population belongs, making it the world’s largest Lutheran Church — has elected its first female bishop, Antje Jackelen in 15 April 2007.

Jackelen, who is married to a priest and has two children, says the Church has female priests for over 50 years, so her appointment did not come as a shock.

Survey results published by the Public Religion Research Institute show that 71% of Americans agree that women should be eligible for ordination as clergy with no special requirements, while 20% disagree.

Last August, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American (ELCA)elected Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, its first female presiding bishop.

Most Christian denominations agree that women are allowed to minister, but they differ among themselves and each other as to whether women are allowed to function in certain positions of spiritual authority.

She served as a priest in Tyresö parish in the Diocese of Stockholm 1981-1988, in Gårdstånga parish in the Diocese of Lund 1988-1994 and in the Cathedral parish of Lund 1995-1996. After finishing her doctorate, she worked at Lund University 1999-2001 and was assistant professor of Systematic Theology/Religion and Science at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago 2001-2003. From 2003 she was Associate Professor and Director of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science.

Jackelén was elected bishop of Lund in 2006, and succeeded Christina Odenberg in 2007. Odenberg had been the first female bishop in the Church of Sweden, and Jackelén became the third. Jackelén was the first female bishop to be appointed after a popular vote in the diocese, the two former (Odenberg in 1997, and Caroline Krook, Bishop of Stockholm, in 1998) having both been appointed by the Swedish government before the separation of the Church of Sweden from the state in 2000. Jackelén was ordained bishop of Lund by Archbishop Anders Wejryd in Uppsala Cathedral on 15 April 2007, and was received in her diocese through a service in Lund Cathedral on 21 April.