Jackelén was born 4 June 1955 in
Herdecke,
West Germany. She studied
Lutheran theology at the
University of Tübingen and
Uppsala University. Jackelén served as a priest in Tyresö
parish in the
Diocese of Stockholm 1981–1988, in Gårdstånga parish in the Diocese of Lund 1988–1994 and in the Cathedral parish of Lund 1995–1996. After finishing her
doctorate, she worked at Lund University 1999–2001 and was assistant
professor of Systematic Theology/Religion and Science at the
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago 2001–2003. From 2003 she was Associate Professor and Director of the
Zygon Center for Religion and Science until 2007. Jackelén was elected
Bishop of Lund in 2006, and succeeded
Christina Odenberg in 2007. Unlike Odenberg, Jackelén obliged clergy who did not recognize her ministry to attend an Eucharist at which she presided. Odenberg had been the first woman to become a bishop in the Church of Sweden, and Jackelén became the third. Jackelén was the first woman to be appointed as bishop after a popular vote in the diocese, the two former (Odenberg in 1997, and
Caroline Krook, Bishop of Stockholm, in 1998) having both been appointed by the Swedish government before the separation of the Church of Sweden from the state in 2000. Jackelén was ordained Bishop of Lund by
Anders Wejryd,
Archbishop of Uppsala, in
Uppsala Cathedral on 15 April 2007, and was received in her diocese through a service in
Lund Cathedral on 21 April. As her official motto, she chose
Gud är större ("God is greater"), referring to a passage in the
First Epistle of John (1 John 3.18–20) and this also became the title of her
pastoral letter, published in 2011. For her
coat of arms, she chose an oval shield design by Jan Raneke displaying triple oak leaves from her home town
Herdecke's coat of arms with triple mantuan pilgrim's crosses,
quartered with the flag of
Scania symbolising her episcopal see of Lund. The oak leaves are also featured on the coat of arms of
Blekinge which constitutes the easternmost part of the Diocese of Lund. As Bishop of Lund, Jackelén was one of the assistant
officiants during the state
wedding of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, and Daniel Westling, in 2010. She has served as representative of the Church of Sweden on the
Lutheran World Federation council. on 6 September 2015, with
Johan Dalman,
Bishop of Strängnäs (left), and
Mikael Mogren,
Bishop of Västerås (right) She was elected
Archbishop of Uppsala on 15 October 2013 and was officially received in Uppsala Cathedral on 15 June 2014, in the presence of
Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and
Queen Silvia of Sweden, after the retirement of
Anders Wejryd. In March 2014,
Johan Tyrberg was elected to succeed her as Bishop of Lund. On Monday, 4 May 2015, she had an official audience with
Pope Francis in
Rome. This made her the first woman and archbishop to be welcomed at the Vatican. Her and the Pope's churches, while having very important and major differences (the stances on the state of ordination and the clergy, Marian beliefs, and their stances on some contemporary social issues, for example), did publish a document on the push toward theological dialogue and communion regarding the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. She has several points of agreement, notably on evolution and the climate, the need for dialogue between science and religion, and the need to care for the poor, and to support some continued role for the Churches in public life, even in secularized societies which tend to want to separate the two. She once again met Pope Francis when he visited Sweden during the turn of the 2016 October–November month switch, beginning the 500th anniversary of the
Protestant Reformation. On 7 December 2021, the Church of Sweden announced that she would retire. She laid down her
bishop's staff during a church service inside the Uppsala Cathedral on 30 October 2022. == Publications ==