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Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland | |
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Classification | Protestant |
Orientation | Lutheran |
Scripture | Bible |
Polity | Episcopal |
Leader | Bishop of Iceland |
Associations | Lutheran World Federation, World Council of Churches, Conference of European Churches, Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe, Porvoo Communion |
Region | Iceland |
Headquarters | Reykjavík, Iceland |
Origin | 1540 |
Separated from | Church of Denmark |
Members | 227,259[1] |
Official website | kirkjan |
The Church of Iceland (Icelandic: Þjóðkirkjan, lit. 'The National Church'), officially the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland (hin evangelíska lúterska kirkja), is the national church of Iceland. The church is Christian and professes the Lutheran faith. It is a member of the Lutheran World Federation, the Porvoo Communion, the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe, and the World Council of Churches.
The church is organised as a single diocese headed by the Bishop of Iceland. Agnes M. Sigurðardóttir, appointed in 2012, the first woman to hold this position.[2][3] She was succeeded by Guðrún Karl Helgudóttir in 2024. The church has two suffragan sees, Skálholt and Hólar, whose bishops are suffragans or assistant bishops to the Bishop of Iceland; unusually, each has a cathedral church despite not being in a separate diocese.