Finnish Lutherans elect new bishop

ELMDF Bishop Elect Juhana Pohjola

FINLAND – The Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland (ELMDF) has elected Diocesan Dean Juhana Pohjola to serve as its new bishop.

“I wish to express my gratitude for the great confidence you have shown in me by giving me such strong support and by electing me for this important and demanding task,” said Rev. Dr. Pohjola in a speech after the election. “I feel great weakness faced with such a great task and calling but I know that the matter has been discussed in the congregations, and that many prayers and intercessions have been said for the matter, which encourages me to look forward to this.”

The Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese is a partner church of Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC), after LCC recognized altar and pulpit fellowship with the Finnish church in 2017. Both churches are also members of the International Lutheran Council.

“I feel great weakness faced with such a great task and calling but I know that the matter has been discussed in the congregations, and that many prayers and intercessions have been said for the matter, which encourages me to look forward to this.”

In 2020, the ELMDF’s Bishop Risto Soramies announced that he would be stepping down as bishop in 2021. A November 2020 meeting of the ELMDF’s College of Priests put forward two candidates for bishop: Rev. Esko Murto and Rev. Dr. Juhana Pohjola. Both candidates have a connection to LCC, having served in the past at Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario. Dr. Pohjola was a visiting scholar at CLTS from January 2011 to June 2012 while working on his doctorate, and contributed to the seminary as a preacher and occasional teacher. Rev. Murto likewise served as a visiting professor beginning in 2015, before accepting the call to serve as an Assistant Professor of Theology at CLTS in 2017—a position he held until accepting a call back to Finland in 2019.

The ELMDF’s recent election for bishop took place remotely, and the results of the vote were announced during the church’s Diocesan Assembly on January 23, 2021. In total, Dr. Pohjola received 111 votes (90.2 percent) through advance voting, while candidate Rev. Esko Murto received 12 votes. A total of 95 percent of potential delegates voted in the election.

Dr. Pohjola’s consecration as bishop is planned for August 1, 2021 at the ELMDF’s Mission Diocese Summer Festival in Loimaa. He will be the third bishop in the history of Finland’s Luther Foundation, and the second for the ELMDF itself. Dr. Pohjola’s successor, Bishop Risto Soramies, has served as Bishop since 2013. Matti Väisänen served as the first Finnish Bishop of the Mission Province of Sweden and Finland from 2010 until the emergence of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland in 2013.

Dr. Pohjola has served as Diocesan Dean of the ELMDF from 2013 until the present, and as dean of its supporting trust, Luther Foundation Finland (LFF), from 2000-2001 and 2012 to the present. He previously served as head pastor of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Helsinki from 2000-2010. He holds a Master of Theology degree from the University of Helsinki (1997), a Master of Sacred Theology degree from Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana (1998), and a Doctorate of Theology from the University of Helsinki (2014).

Dean Pohjola was ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland’s (ELCF) Diocese of Oulu in 1999 in order to serve the then newly founded Luther Foundation Finland. In 2004, the LFF broke fellowship with the ELCF over doctrinal differences. The LFF found itself shunned by the ELCF but the unexpected publicity led to rapid growth in the LFF. Dean Pohjola was eventually defrocked by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in 2014 after the founding of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland.

The ELMDF and Dean Juhana Pohjola drew international attention in 2020 when Finnish police began investigating them for the 2004 publication of a booklet which defended historic Christian teaching on human sexuality. The booklet, which was written by a Finnish Member of Parliament, was published well before the 2017 legalization of same-sex marriage in Finland. Dean Pohjola was interrogated for five hours as part of an ongoing investigation which has sparked international concern over the state of religious freedom in Finland.

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Adapted from ILC News and an ELMDF news release

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