General Secretary Junge is grateful for her ecumenical and theological leadership
(Lutheran World Information Center) – Rev. Dr. Kaisamari Hintikka, assistant to the general secretary for ecumenical relations and director of the Department for Theology and Public Witness (DTPW) at the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), has been elected Bishop of the Diocese of Espoo in Finland.
“We received this news with gratitude in our hearts and with joy,” said LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr. Junge. “We are grateful for the outstanding ecumenical and theological leadership that Kaisamari Hintikka has provided to the entire LWF communion in the context of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. We are glad to know that the Diocese of Espoo will receive all her gifts and talents, which have been enriched by her experience and participation in the global context of the church.”
“The election of a capable and theologically educated woman to the office of bishop is a great encouragement for us in the Lutheran World Federation,” he added.
Hintikka, an ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF), joined the LWF in 2012, after working in her congregation and at the Conference of European Churches. As assistant to the LWF general secretary for ecumenical relations, she has led the LWF’s ecumenical dialogues with partners such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox, the Anglicans, the Reformed, the Pentecostals and the Mennonites.
“We received this news with gratitude in our hearts and with joy. We are grateful for the outstanding ecumenical and theological leadership that Kaisamari Hintikka has provided to the entire LWF communion in the context of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation,” – LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr. Junge.
As director of the DTPW, she has led the LWF’s theological, ecumenical and interreligious work, taking the lead in strengthening and advocating for gender justice throughout the communion. The department coordinated the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and has been involved in fundamental theological work, publishing study documents and policy formulations, such as: the Gender Justice Policy, The Self-Understanding of the Lutheran Communion, The Church in the Public Space and The Bible in the Life of the Lutheran Communion.
In a conversation with the Lutheran World Information Center, Hintikka said: “I am grateful and humbled by this call from the Diocese of Espoo. I pray that, together with all the members of its congregations, we may participate ever more strongly in God’s mission and witness in this world, in order to foster hope, peace and justice.”
The ELCF has almost four million members. It is one of the members that founded the LWF in 1947 and hosted the communion’s fourth assembly in Helsinki in 1963. The church is made up of nine dioceses located throughout the country, each diocese led by a bishop. At the national level the church is led by Archbishop Tapio Luoma.
The Diocese of Espoo, located in the country’s capital region, is the youngest diocese in the Lutheran Church of Finland. It was established in 2004 and includes 19 congregations, which serve around 600,000 people. Hintikka will be installed in the office of bishop at Espoo Cathedral in February 2019.
Hintikka is 51 years old and was ordained in 2009. She studied theology in Finland and in 2000 defended a dissertation on the history of the ecumenical movement, especially in the context of the Orthodox churches. She is married to Jukka Väinölä, and they have one daughter.
Espoo, Finland/Geneva
| 1.11.2018.
Source: The Lutheran World Federation