Mari Leppänen elected the next Bishop of the Archdiocese of Turku

Mari Leppänen was elected the next Bishop of the Archdiocese of Turku, having received 53.8 % of the votes in the second round of the episcopal elections on 3 December 2020. Born in 1978, Leppänen is currently the Dean of the Diocese at the Diocesan Chapter of the Archdiocese of Turku.

The results and the voter turnout for the second election round were confirmed the following day by the Diocesan Chapter.

The votes were divided as follows: Mari Leppänen received 565 votes and Jouni Lehikoinen 468 votes. The voter turnout was 87.9 %, and there were 17 invalid votes.

In the second election round, a total of 1194 votes were cast. All the pastors and lecturers of the Archdiocese were entitled to vote in the election, along with a corresponding number of lay voters.

Ordained in 2012, Leppänen has been the Dean of the Diocese at the Diocesan Chapter of the Archdiocese of Turku since 2019. Before that, she worked as advisor to the Bishop of the Archdiocese of Turku, as a parish elections project manager at the Church Council and as a pastor at the Lieto Parish Union.

The newly elected bishop will take office on 1 February 2021 and be consecrated in the Turku Cathedral on 7 February. The current Bishop of the Archdiocese of Turku, Kaarlo Kalliala, will retire on 31 January 2021.