The Church of Sweden has more female priests than male priests for the first time, according to numbers released this month, a sign of huge strides for gender equality since women were first allowed to be ordained in 1960.
The Lutheran institution, which was the official Swedish state church until 2000, now counts 1,533 women serving as priests and 1,527 men. Its archbishop and several bishops are also women.
“It’s a mirror of the society, in a way,” the Rev. Elisabeth Oberg Hansen said after giving a sermon in a small church in Stockholm. “It’s as it should be.” Read more
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