The World's First Lesbian Bishop

by Michael Jones · 2009-11-10 12:11:00 UTC
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Eva BrunneEva Brunne is 55 years old, the mother of a three-year-old, and armed with a pastoral smile that could probably melt that hardest of hearts. Oh, and she's got one other title she can now hang under her hat: she's the world's first openly lesbian bishop.

Bishop Brunne became, well, "Bishop" Brunne this past weekend during a ceremony in Sweden. Her consecration as Bishop comes just two weeks after the Lutheran Church of Sweden, of which Brunne is a member, said that they would approve recognizing same-sex marriages.

Even more significant? Brunne is part of a Communion of Lutherans that spans 6.9 million members worldwide, making it the largest Lutheran Church in the world.

Woot for Bishop Brunne! Although if you ask her, which the Metro newspaper had the opportunity to do, she's not too fixated on the fact that she's the world's first lesbian that can put the word "bishop" in front of their name.

"I don’t think a heterosexual bishop would ever be asked about his wife or marriage, but I am happy if I, to some degree, can be a symbolic figure. Of course there are other things in my life that qualify me as a bishop," Bishop Brunne said.

(Photo by Isabel Svensson, courtesy of metro.us)

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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