Tuulikki Koivunen Bylund


Tuulikki Koivunen Bylund is a Finnish-born Swedish theologian. She was appointed Bishop of Härnösand in central Sweden on 8 November 2009; she was the fourth woman to be ordained as a bishop in the Church of Sweden. She retired on 13 December 2014.

Biography

Koivunen Bylund was born on 19 July 1947 in Turku, south-western Finland, and grew up in Rauma where she matriculated from the girls' high school in 1967. After graduating in theology from Åbo Akademi University in 1971, she was ordained a priest in the Diocese of Lund, Sweden, in the same year. She had emigrated to Sweden because at the time it was not possible for women to enter the clergy in Finland. The churches of Finland and Sweden differed significantly in their admission of women to the clergy.
In 1973, she became the principal diocesan curate in Lund, gaining a similar position in Växjö the following year. She served as a deputy pastor in Bro Parish, Upplands-Bro, in the Diocese of Uppsala, from 1976. In 1983 she became a student pastor at Uppsala University, and in 1987 an assistant pastor at Uppsala Cathedral and parish priest for the Almtuna district. She was appointed Dean of Uppsala Cathedral in 1995 before becoming Bishop of Härnösand in 2009. The consecration ceremony took place in Uppsala Cathedral. At the same occasion, Eva Brunne was consecrated Bishop of Stockholm.
Koivunen Bylund became a Doctor of Theology at Uppsala University in 1994. Her doctoral dissertation, with the title "Frukta icke, allenast tro" : Ebba Boström och Samariterhemmet 1882-1902 is an interdisciplinary work within women's history and practical theology, which investigates the history of the charitable institution Samariterhemmet in Uppsala.