Urmas Viilma (born 13 August 1973) is an Estonian

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pre ...

and current archbishop of Tallinn and subsequently

Primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...

of the

Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELC; Estonian: ''Eesti Evangeelne Luterlik Kirik'', abbreviated EELK) is a Lutheran church in Estonia. EELC is member of the Lutheran World Federation and belongs to the Community of Protestant Church ...

Biography

Viilma was ordained a deacon on 2 May 1993 in St Michael's church in

Keila Keila (german: Kegel) is a town and an urban municipality in Harju County in north-western Estonia, 25 km southwest of Tallinn. Keila is also the location of administrative buildings of the surrounding Keila Parish, a rural municipality se ...

by Bishop Einar Soone. On 15 September 1998 he was ordained a priest in St Mary's Cathedral, Tallinn by Archbishop Jaan Kiivit Junior. On 26 November 2014, he was elected to the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Synod by the archbishop. He was ordained a bishop and was appointed Archbishop on 2 February 2015. He was consecrated by bishop Einar Soone, bishop Andres Taul and bishop Andres Põder.

Career

After ordination as a deacon, Viilma was appointed as deacon in the parish of

. The same year he was appointed as deacon in the parish of Parnu-Jacobi, holding this post till 1998. Between 1998 and 2004 he was pastor of Pärnu-Jakobi. He also worked in the

Pärnu Pärnu () is the fourth largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet ...

Provincial Support Office between 1999 and 2003. He was also pastor of the parish of Mihkli, Tõstamaa and Vigala, respectively and simultaneously, between 1999 and 2004. Later he also held various positions within the Lutheran church of Estonia notably the head of the council of the Diocese of Tallinn between 2010 and 2015."Consecration the new Archbishop of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church"
'' ECAV''. Retrieved on 24 September 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Viilma, Urmas 1973 births Estonian Lutheran clergy Lutheran archbishops of Tallinn Estonian Lutheran bishops 21st-century Lutheran bishops 21st-century Lutheran archbishops People from Tallinn Living people