Diocese of Borgå
The Diocese of Borgå (Swedish: Borgå stift, Finnish: Porvoon hiippakunta) is a diocese for the Swedish-speaking minority of Finland. It is a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Porvoo (Borgå in Swedish) is also the old seat of the present-day (Finnish-speaking) Diocese of Tampere.
Diocese of Borgå Borgå stift | |
|---|---|
 Borgå Cathedral | |
 Coat of arms | |
| Location | |
| Country | Finland |
| Ecclesiastical province | Turku & Finland |
| Metropolitan | Archbishop of Turku & Finland |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland |
| Cathedral | Porvoo Cathedral |
| Current leadership | |
| Bishop | Bo-Göran Åstrand |
| Metropolitan Archbishop | Tapio Luoma |
| Website | |
| www.borgastift.fi | |
Unlike the other dioceses of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the diocese is not formed on a geographical basis. All the Swedish-speaking parishes and dominantly Swedish-speaking bilingual parishes of the church belong to the diocese, regardless of their location. As a result of the geographical distribution of Swedish-speakers, the parishes of the diocese are mostly on the coast, the Swedish-speaking parish of Tampere being the only inland parish. In addition, there are two ethnicity-based parishes in the diocese: The German parish of Finland and rikssvenska Olaus Petri församlingen, the former Church of Sweden parish in Finland. The German parish (German: Deutsche ev.-luth. Gemeinde in Finnland) is the parish for the German-speaking minority of Finland, while the rikssvenska parish consists of Swedish citizens living in Finland.
The diocese has some 234,000 parishioners.
Two of the three bishops Vikström are brothers, John (later archbishop of Turku/Åbo) and Erik, while Björn is a son of John Vikström.
Bishops of Borgå
- Max von Bonsdorff, 1923–1954
- Georg Olof Rosenqvist, 1954–1961
- Karl-Erik Forssell, 1961–1970
- John Vikström, 1970–1982
- Erik Vikström, 1983–2006
- Gustav Björkstrand, 2006–2009
- Björn Vikström 2009–2019
- Bo-Göran Åstrand 2019-
See also
External links
- The page of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland about the diocese (in Swedish)
- Official homepage (in Swedish)