The Rev. Guðrún Karls Helgudóttir has been elected the Bishop of Iceland in sucession to the Rt. Rev. Agnes Sigurðardóttir. On 7 May 2024 Bishop-elect Helgudóttir received 1060 votes (52.19%) to the Rev. Guðmundur Karl Brynjarsson’s 954 votes (46.97%) from the members of the Church Assembly. Approximately 89% of the church’s 2286 electors cast their ballots.
The bishop-elect was born in Reykjavik on April 27, 1969 and earned a B.A. in theology from the University of Iceland in 1998, followed by a cand. theol. in 2000. She has served as a children’s and youth worker, and was ordained a priest in 2011. She has led Grafarvogur parish since 2008.
Since her ordination she has also continued her studies at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and has also served in the council for the National Church of Iceland twice.
She will be consecrated on 1 September 2024 in succession to Bishop Agnes Sigurðardóttir, whose closing years of episcopacy have been entangled in litigation. In 2022 a suspended minister filed suit against Bishop Sigurðardóttir alleging she had no authority under the canons of the state church (Þjóðkirkjan) to remove him from office as her appointment was improper.
The Church of Iceland (Þjóðkirkjan) is the established Lutheran church of the island nation, and its clergy are paid by the state. Clerical salaries and parochial responsibilities are laid out in a contract negotiated by the Association of Icelandic Clergy and the state and governed by civil and canon law.
The President of Iceland appointed Bishop Sigurðardóttir to a five year term of office, from 1 July 2012 to 1 July 2017. Her term was extended for five further years, to conclude on 30 June 2022. At the close of her term, Ragnhildur Ásgeirsdóttir, Executive Director of the Office of the Bishop of Iceland appointed her superior, Bishop Sigurðardóttir, to serve as a bishop temporarily for 28 months. However, the reappointment was made without knowledge of the synod.
Drífa Hjartardóttir, President of the Kirkjuráð (Church Assembly), told the Morgunblaðið newspaper that “it is strange for a subordinate to make an employment contract with their superior, as in this case. Neither the Church Assembly nor its executive committee were aware of the agreement.”
The question was passed to Supreme Court Justice Einar Gautur Steingrímsson for adjudication. who held “the situation is that there are no decisions that the bishop Agnes M. Sigurðardóttir has taken after 1 July 2022 that are valid …”
“There is no bishop over Iceland,” Justice Steingrímsson found.
