Antje Jackelén

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Bishop Antje Jackelén

Antje Jackelén, born June 4, 1955 in Herdecke, Germany, is the Bishop of Lund in Sweden. She was ordained a priest in the Church of Sweden in 1980 and became a Doctor of Theology at Lund University in 1999.

She served as a priest in Tyresö parish in the Diocese of Stockholm 1981-1988, in Gårdstånga parish in the Diocese of Lund 1988-1994 and in the Cathedral parish of Lund 1995-1996. After finishing her doctorate, she worked at Lund University 1999-2001 and was assistant professor of Systematic Theology/Religion and Science at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago 2001-2003. From 2003 she was Associate Professor and Director of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science.

Jackelén was elected bishop of Lund in 2006, and succeeded Christina Odenberg in 2007. Odenberg had been the first female bishop in the Church of Sweden, and Jackelén became the third. Jackelén was the first female bishop to be appointed after a popular vote in the diocese, the two former (Odenberg in 1997, and Caroline Krook, Bishop of Stockholm, in 1998) having both been appointed by the Swedish government before the separation of the Church of Sweden from the state in 2000. Jackelén was ordained bishop of Lund by Archbishop Anders Wejryd in Uppsala Cathedral on 15 April, 2007, and was received in her diocese through a service in Lund Cathedral on 21 April.

Her doctoral dissertation Zeit und Ewigkeit: die Frage der Zeit in Kirche, Naturwissenschaft und Theologie (Lund 1999) was later republished on Neukirchener Verlag under the same title in 2002. A Swedish translation came in 2000 and an English translation Time & eternity: the question of time in church, science, and theology was published in 2005. She was the speaker at the 2003 Goshen Conference on Religion and Science, a conference that features noted academics in the field of religion and science. The proceedings were published by Pandora Press.

Her husband, Heinz Jackelén, is also a priest, and they have two daughters.