Kaisamari Hintikka elected to serve as next Bishop of Espoo

The Assistant General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, the Revd Dr Kaisamari Hintikka (born 1967) received 57.5 percent of the votes cast in the second round of the Espoo episcopal election and has been elected to serve as the next Bishop of the Diocese of Espoo.

The votes for Kaisamari Hintikka and the Revd Dr Juhani Holma (born 1958), a worship specialist at the Järvenpää Institute for Advanced Training, were distributed as follows: Kaisamari Hintikka received a total of 463 votes; Juhani Holma received 324 votes. The turnout was 84.7%.

Kaisamari Hintikka was ordained priest in 2009. Hintikka has worked in Geneva since 2011, for the last five years as Assistant General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation. Previously, among other roles, she worked as Sectoral Affairs Secretary at the church’s Department for International Relations.

There were 950 electors in the Espoo episcopal election, composed of the priests and readers of the diocese, as well as lay people.
Kaisamari Hintikka will be consecrated on 10 February 2019 at Espoo Cathedral. Tapio Luoma, the previous Bishop of Espoo, was elected to serve as Archbishop. He began his new ministry at the beginning of June 2018.