The Diocese of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin hiippakunta; sv, Helsingfors stift) is a

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

of the

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland ( fi, Suomen evankelis-luterilainen kirkko; sv, Evangelisk-lutherska kyrkan i Finland) is a national church of Finland. It is part of the Lutheran branch of Christianity. The church has a legal positio ...

, and the seat of the Bishop of

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. Its cathedral is

Helsinki Cathedral Helsinki Cathedral ( fi, Helsingin tuomiokirkko, ; sv, Helsingfors domkyrka, ) is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, Finnish Evangelical Lutheran cathedral of the Diocese of Helsinki, located in the neighborhood of Kruununhaka in the c ...

. The diocese was established in 1959 by dividing the

Diocese of Tampere The Diocese of Tampere (, ) is the second oldest and the largest diocese in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. It is divided into 69 parishes with a total population of over 595,000 people. The diocese is led by the Bishop of Tampere. H ...

. It covers only 1% of the country's territory, but contains 10% of its population. The diocese comprises 39 parishes. It was partitioned again in 2002, when the western part became the

Diocese of Espoo The Diocese of Espoo (Finnish ''Espoon hiippakunta'') is the newest of the nine dioceses of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. The diocese came into existence in 2004 after the Diocese of Helsinki was split in two. The seat of the dioc ...

. The current bishop of Helsinki is Teemu Laajasalo. The diocese is unique among the Finnish dioceses in the sense that in some parish areas, the church members are in a minority. In the

Kallio Kallio (; sv, Berghäll; literally " the rock") is a district and a neighbourhood in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, located on the eastern side of the Helsinki peninsula about one kilometre north from the city centre. It is one of the mo ...

and

Vallila Vallila () is a neighbourhood in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Vallila is a central-northern neighbourhood, bordered by Pasila to the west and Alppiharju to the south. Like Kallio, Vallila is mostly residential and has a reputation of being a ...

districts, church membership among the residents is circa 49 per cent. Only in six of the 18 parishes of the diocese the membership share reaches over 60 per cent of the population.

Bishops of Helsinki

Martti Simojoki Martti Ilmari Simojoki, previously Simelius (September 17, 1908 in Uusikaupunki – April 25, 1999 in Helsinki) was the Archbishop of Turku, and the spiritual head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland between 1964 and 1978. Simojoki becam ...

1959–1964 * Aarre Lauha 1964–1972 * Aimo T. Nikolainen 1972–1982 *

Samuel Lehtonen Samuel Lehtonen (3 February 1921, Helsinki – 20 August 2010) was the Lutheran bishop of the Diocese of Helsinki of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland ( fi, Suomen evankelis-luterilainen kirkko; ...

1982–1991 *

Eero Huovinen Eero Huovinen (born October 27, 1944, in Helsinki) is the former Bishop of Helsinki in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Biography Eero Huovinen was born in Helsinki, the son of the Revd Dr Lauri Huovinen (1915–1994), Dean of the ...

1991–2010 *

Irja Askola Irja Kaarina Askola (born 18 December 1952 in Lappeenranta, Finland) is the former Bishop of Helsinki. She was the first female Finnish bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Askola was the Bishop of Helsinki from 2010 to 2017. ...

2010–2017 * Teemu Laajasalo 2017–

References

External links

* Lutheran districts established in the 20th century Organisations based in Helsinki Lutheranism in Finland Christian organizations established in 1959 Christianity in Helsinki {{Finland-stub