12 Facts About Eva Brunne

Gerd Eva Cecilia Brunne was born on 7 March 1954 and is a bishop in the Church of Sweden.

Eva Brunne served as the Bishop of Stockholm from 2009 till 2019.

Eva Brunne is the first openly lesbian bishop of a mainstream church in the world and the first bishop of the Church of Sweden to be in a registered same-sex partnership.

Eva Brunne was ordained as a priest in 1978 and started serving in the Diocese of Lund, comprising Sweden's southernmost provinces of Blekinge and Scania.

Eva Brunne spent the first years of her priesthood in Karlskrona, Blekinge.

In 1980, upon becoming Secretary General of the Swedish Student Christian Movement, Eva Brunne took up a permanent residence in Stockholm.

On 26 May 2009, Eva Brunne was elected Bishop of Stockholm, succeeding Caroline Krook.

Eva Brunne is the first openly lesbian bishop in the world and the first bishop of the Church of Sweden to have lived in a registered homosexual partnership.

In October 2010, Bishop Eva Brunne took part in a rally against racism in Stockholm, after the nationalist Sweden Democrats party entered the Riksdag.

Eva Brunne denied that the speech was directed against a specific party.

In September 2015 Eva Brunne proposed the removal of symbols of Christianity, including crosses, from the Seamen's Church in Stockholm Harbor, to open the church to worshipping sailors of all beliefs, and to mark the direction of Mecca as a service to Muslim visitors.

Since 2001, Eva Brunne has been in a registered partnership with Gunilla Linden, who is an ordained priest of the Church of Sweden.