wfn.org | Mikko Heikka, First Bishop of Finland's New Espoo Diocese

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Mikko Heikka, First Bishop of Finland's New Espoo Diocese 
Newly Created Diocese to Be Inaugurated in January 2004

HELSINKI, Finland/GENEVA, 23 December 2003 (LWI) - Rev. Dr Mikko
Heikka will be consecrated as the first bishop of the
recently-created Espoo Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
of Finland (ELCF) on 6 January 2004. Mikko is currently dean of
Helsinki. 

The ELCF general synod decided earlier this year to split the
Helsinki diocese due to its large size. Espoo, the church's ninth
diocese will be inaugurated on 1 January 2004. With some 900,000
members in 66 parishes, Helsinki, which was founded in 1959, is
currently, both in population and in the number of personnel,
almost double the size of the other dioceses. Espoo will comprise
24 parishes with around 425,000 parishioners. The ELCF has 4.4
million members, representing 85 percent of the 5.1 million
Finnish population.

Espoo is nicknamed "the Diocese of Nokia," because the head
office of Nokia, the high technology giant, is located in the
city of Espoo. The new diocese includes both centers of growth in
the metropolitan area and small rural districts.

Heikka was born in northern Finland in 1944. He was ordained in
1968 and obtained his Doctor of Divinity from the University of
Helsinki in 1983. He was a pastor in three different Helsinki
parishes, before he became dean in 1989. He is married to Tuuli
Heikka, and they have four children.

During the October 14 election, bishop-elect Heikka received 321
votes while Dr Simo Peura, director of the ELCF training center,
got 208 votes. Rev. Marjatta Laitinen, a female candidate in the
first round, did not qualify for the second round. But when the
diocese of Espoo is inaugurated, Laitinen, currently a vicar,
will become Finland's first woman dean. There is still no woman
bishop in Finland. The dean is a member of the cathedral chapter
and the bishop's deputy. 

(ELCF Information Center) 

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