When she was born there were no women priests in Iceland. Today half of the ministers serving in the Church of Iceland are women, the presiding bishop is a woman, and Kristín Þórunn Tómasdóttir is dean of the country's oldest episcopal see.
Av Maria Solbak Årnes · Written answers from Kristín Þórunn Tómasdóttir, vicar and dean of Skálholt Cathedral, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland · [DATO] · 11 October 2026
The island of fire and ice
MARIA Tell us briefly about yourself and your current ministry.
I greet you warmly from the island of fire and ice.
I am now serving as the vicar and dean of Skálholt Cathedral, and my pastorate includes all of the Golden Circle, the most famous tourist route in Iceland. This is a rural, large area, but not so heavily populated, although people are increasingly moving there from the Reykjavík surroundings. Traditionally this is an agricultural area, but now tourism is shaping much of the working and living environment of the people whom I serve.
In my pastorate there are eight parishes, all of them with not so many inhabitants. There are twelve churches, including the large cathedral in Skálholt. Every Sunday we have worship services at Skálholt, but in the smaller country churches we try to have worship once a month, or even twice a month. The smallest churches get services during the high feasts: Christmas, Easter and Pentecost.
Skálholt. The see was founded in 1056, with Ísleifur Gissurarson as the first bishop, and he held it until his death in 1080. Skálholt was one of Iceland's two episcopal seats, alongside Hólar in the north, from 1056 to 1785. Skálholtsskóli, founded there in 1056 to train clergy, was the first school in the country. The present cathedral was built between 1956 and 1963 and is the tenth church on the site; the first stood there about the year 1000. Skálholt lies on the Golden Circle in the south of Iceland. Sources: South Iceland, Guide to Iceland, Wikipedia, Skálholt, Wikipedia, Ísleifur Gissurarson.
Traditionally Skálholt has been a bishop's seat, but the last year that has changed. During organisational changes in the Church of Iceland, we don't know if that will continue to be so.
So I am now the only priest in Skálholt pastorate, but I am blessed with a very good companion, our deacon in a fifty per cent position. And of course the organist, who is my closest co-worker.
I greet you warmly from the island of fire and ice.
Eight parishes, twelve churches
MARIA What does the work consist of?
Our ministry is rather traditional: worship, confirmation classes, baptisms, weddings, funerals, pastoral care and visits.
Administration and organisation take up a remarkable amount of time in my working day. Maybe because I put heavy emphasis on keeping our lay leaders close in all decisions concerning them. And every one of the eight parishes has their own parish council, so that means a lot of meetings and phone calls.
And of course, since Skálholt is a cathedral, a lot of service comes with that. As part of the Golden Circle, buses come full with people who want to visit and learn about this ancient place of Christianity and culture in Iceland. Since I've been here, it's been a part of my service and ministry to meet with groups and show them around the church and tell about the history. There I also have a small team that is responsible for catering to these groups.
The church provides a vicarage where I live with my family, which includes four cats. I have four children, and the two oldest are now living away from home. My husband serves the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva. We have been here for over two years now, and we are happy and grateful for all the service in the municipality.
Too big for one priest
MARIA How do you experience pastoral ministry today?
I've been an ordained pastor in our church since 1998. I've held several positions, in the city and also further away, in more rural areas than I am now.
Right now I experience that pastoral ministry in our church is in a good place. Generally church officials are more aware of wellbeing and care for their flock, who are working so hard, and in later years an emphasis has been on making pastors more aware of their own wellbeing and the importance of taking days off during the week.
And that is a challenge in my case. I feel that organisationally the pastorate I serve is too big, and the tasks are too many, for one priest only. And I admit I find it hard not to meet the expectations from all my parishioners, and my own ambition for the cathedral, and still make sure I get the assumed days off and full vacations during the year.
I guess that is both my own problem, but also the fault of a naive system that has cut down the number of pastors in the country and put more burden on those who stay. That is only leading to burnouts and uneven burdens.
A naive system that has cut down the number of pastors and put more burden on those who stay.
A pastor's home
MARIA What led you into this calling, and what sustains you in daily parish life?
During a period where we have enjoyed more and more pastors doing their second career, I have been a pastor my whole working life. I have not been able to do that without the joy and nourishment I get from serving the Lord and my neighbour, through meeting people in the context of worship, praying and singing. And preaching.
I also feel that fellowship with colleagues is important to sustain me in working life. In my case a lot of colleagues are also my closest friends, and that creates important dynamics that can encourage, nourish and strengthen our respective ministries. These are of course mostly other women pastors who fulfil this role.
This is really my only work since I came of age, so the calling was there, alright. I grew up in a pastor's home, since my father was a minister of the church, so this environment comes very naturally for me.
I always consider my father a role model in my life and in my calling. But since I have also been blessed with strong women in my life, I've had no problems with applying the role of the minister to myself.
The calling was there, alright.
Fifty-fifty
When I was born, there were no women serving as priests in Iceland. Now we are around fifty-fifty, women and men, and the presiding bishop is a woman.
This transition has come surprisingly naturally in my context. And I guess I am blessed with the cultural bias of the tradition that holds women to be credible witnesses at the resurrection of Jesus, who receive the commission to proclaim to the apostles and to the whole world that Christ is risen.
This fact has rendered the tension between male and female ministry irrelevant to me when it comes to public office. I realise I live in a very privileged context, where women are taken as seriously as men, also in church surroundings.
The Easter message is enough for me, and the witness of the gospels, who tell about the women at the tomb as the first proclaimers of Christ's resurrection.
Women in the Church of Iceland. Auður Eir Vilhjálmsdóttir was ordained on 29 September 1974, the first woman in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland, and took up her first post in the fishing village of Suðureyri. She had graduated in theology twelve years earlier, in 1962. In 2012 Agnes M. Sigurðardóttir became the first woman elected Bishop of Iceland, and she held the office until 2024. Guðrún Karls Helgudóttir took over the duties on 1 July 2024 and was consecrated at Hallgrímskirkja on 1 September, by her predecessor, the second woman to lead the church. Sources: Lutheran World Federation, Wikipedia, Auður Eir Vilhjálmsdóttir, Wikipedia, Bishop of Iceland, Wikipedia, Guðrún Karls Helgudóttir, RÚV.
The Easter message is enough for me.
Somewhere, something went wrong
Somewhere, something went wrong, though. We live with a church history that has been shamelessly undermining women and their experience. All our heavy male dominated theology bears witness to that.
That's why women are not allowed to the public office to be ministers of word and sacrament in many of our sister churches.
When you empathise with our sisters in those churches, you can't help but feel their pain. And also feel the pain of the Body of Christ, that is robbed of the many talents and gifts that women bring to the community of ordained ministry.
The pain of the Body of Christ, that is robbed of the many talents and gifts that women bring.
Portrett
Terskelen
Tómasdóttir is the only woman in this series who says the question has never really touched her. She was born into a church with no women priests, and now serves one where half the ministers are women and the presiding bishop is a woman. The transition, she writes, came surprisingly naturally.
She grounds her position in Easter morning and in the witness of the gospels. The women at the tomb were credible witnesses, given the commission to proclaim to the apostles and to the whole world that Christ is risen, and she counts herself blessed to stand in a tradition that holds them to be so. The Easter message is enough for me, she writes.
The men in this series who hold the opposite view draw a line between bearing witness to the resurrection and holding the teaching office, and the conversation with them will turn on that line. She also writes that somewhere, something went wrong, and that church history has shamelessly undermined women. That is a claim the other side will want to answer. They have the floor before we pass judgement.