Race for Lutheran Archbishop: Runoff between conservative and reformist

Kari Mäkinen

Miikka Ruokanen

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Both conservatives and the reform-minded in the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church are celebrating the outcome of Thursday’s first round in the election of a new archbishop.
      In the vote, the top two candidates, who will go into the second round, are Kari Mäkinen, the Bishop of Turku, a leading reformist figure in the church, and the more conservative Miikka Ruokanen, Professor of Dogmatics at the Department of Theology at the University of Helsinki.
      The result, 393 to 284, was announced at 3:00 PM.
     
Mäkinen was generally considered the most tolerant and reform-minded of the field of seven candidates.
      Meanwhile, Professor Ruokanen has emphasised the importance of the purity of the teachings of the Church. Responding to questions put to him by Helsingin Sanomat, he said straight out that he would not ordain an openly homosexual theologian as a minister of the church (see link below).
      One of the advance favourites, Seppo Häkkinen, the Bishop of Mikkeli, was somewhat unexpectedly left in third place, with 263 votes.
     
As no candidate got an absolute majority of the votes, a second round will be held on March 11th.
      For historical reasons, residents of Turku have enormous sway in the choice of the Finnish Lutheran Archbishop; the clergy and lay representatives of the Turku Archdiocese hold a total of 900 of the 1,226 electors in the vote. The rest are from Finland’s eight other Lutheran dioceses.
     
On Monday next week the Turku Cathedral Chapter will confirm the result of the vote and order a second round of voting.
      In addition to Bishops Mäkinen and Häkkinen, and Professor Ruokanen, the candidates in the first round included Vicar Martti hirvonen from Turku, Samuel Salmi, the Bishop of Oulu, Vicar Jouni Lehikoinen from Turku, and Seppo Rissanen, Director of the Finnish Missionary Society.
      The current Archbishop, Jukka Paarma, retires in early June. The new Archbishop takes over on the same day, June 6th.


See also:
  HS put three questions to seven candidates seeking post of Archbishop (14.2.2010)
  Polarised Lutheran Church seeks new referee between reformists and conservatives (14.2.2010)

Links:
  Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

Helsingin Sanomat