Paneeraq Siegstad Munk (born 30 January 1977) is the current

Bishop of Greenland The Bishop of Greenland is a diocesan bishop of the Church of Denmark, and the leader of the Church of Greenland, which is an episcopal church in the Lutheran tradition. History Historically (before the Reformation) the Bishop of Greenland was kn ...

for the Evangelical Lutheran Church. She was elected as bishop in 2020, and officially sworn in the next year.

Early life

Paneeraq Siegstad Munk was born on 30 January 1977 in Attu.

Career

In 2001, Munk earned a bachelor's degree in

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

from the

University of Greenland The University of Greenland ( kl, Ilisimatusarfik Kalaallit Nunaat; da, Grønlands Universitet) is Greenland's only university. It is in the capital city of Nuuk. Most courses are taught in Danish, a few in Greenlandic and classes by exchange le ...

. Three years later, she was ordained as a priest for the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Church of Denmark). As a priest, she served the towns of

Ittoqqortoormiit Ittoqqortoormiit (East Greenlandic: ; West Greenlandic: ''Illoqqortoormiut'' ), formerly known as Scoresbysund, is a settlement in the Sermersooq municipality in eastern Greenland. Its population was 345 as of 2020 and has been described as one of ...

and

Aasiaat Aasiaat () or Ausiait, formerly Egedesminde, is a town in the Qeqertalik municipality in western Greenland, located in the heart of Aasiaat Archipelago at the southern end of Disko Bay. With a population of 3,069 as of 2020, it is Greenland's fo ...

. She also oversaw the Greenland Clergy Association. In 2017, she completed her master's degree in theology, and became a provost in

Kujataa Kujataa is a sub-arctic farming landscape in the southern region of Greenland. It is the first known example of agriculture in the Arctic, and the oldest evidence of the Old Norse culture spreading outside Europe. The unique juxtaposition of farm ...

. In 2020, she defeated three other candidates to become the

bishop of Greenland The Bishop of Greenland is a diocesan bishop of the Church of Denmark, and the leader of the Church of Greenland, which is an episcopal church in the Lutheran tradition. History Historically (before the Reformation) the Bishop of Greenland was kn ...

, taking office on 1 December 2021. Allegations arose after her election that she committed

academic misconduct An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...

in relation to her bachelor's thesis—specifically that she cheated—but she and personnel from the university denied this. She replaced

Sofie Petersen Sofie Petersen (born 1955) is a Greenlandic Lutheran bishop. She was born on 23 November 1955 in Maniitsoq, Greenland, Kingdom of Denmark. She studied theology and graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1986. On 28 May 1995, at the age o ...

, who had served as bishop for the previous 25 years (1995–2020), and is the third bishop of Greenland overall. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, her official

swearing in Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to ...

was delayed until 2021, the 300 year anniversary of

Hans Egede Hans Poulsen Egede (31 January 1686 – 5 November 1758) was a Dano-Norwegian Lutheran missionary who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a successful mission among the Inui ...

bringing

Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

to the island. She took her oath in October, and Queen

Margrethe II Margrethe II (; Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid, born 16 April 1940) is Queen of Denmark. Having reigned as Denmark's monarch for over 50 years, she is Europe's longest-serving current head of state and the world's only incumbent femal ...

and other bishops (including

Marianne Gaarden Marianne Gaarden (born 4 February 1964) is a Danish prelate who is the 21st and current Bishop of Lolland-Falster. Biography Gaarden is from Brønderslev, where she became a student at Brønderslev School in 1983. She subsequently went to Barce ...

, Jogvan Fridriksson, and

Henrik Stubkjær Henrik Stubkjær (born 31 of December 1961 in Brædstrup) is a Danish Lutheran theologian and since November 2014 the 44th Bishop of Viborg in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark. Stubkjær is chair of World Service, a member of the pre ...

) attended the ceremony. Her predecessor ordained her, and she took office on 1 December 2021. She said that the

Greenlandic language Greenlandic ( kl, kalaallisut, link=no ; da, grønlandsk ) is an Eskimo–Aleut language with about 56,000 speakers, mostly Greenlandic Inuit in Greenland. It is closely related to the Inuit languages in Canada such as Inuktitut. It is the mos ...

is an important element of the church, and that the interest of Margrethe II in the religious participation of the island was meaningful to its members.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Siegstad Munk, Paneeraq 21st-century Lutheran bishops Danish Lutheran bishops Women Lutheran bishops Greenlandic Lutheran clergy Living people 1977 births