For the first time in history, female priests have outnumbered their male counterparts in Sweden. It was sixty years ago that females were allowed to wear the robe of priests in the church of Sweden.
The church has 3,060 priests at present. Of this, 1,533 are females, which mean they make 50.1 per cent of the priests.
A 1990 report had estimated that females would not make up half the total clergy until 2090. However, this happened faster than thought, Church of Sweden secretary Cristina Grenholm said.
The Church of Sweden ordained three women in 1960 as priests. Now a lot of churches in Swden have male and female priests presiding over Sunday services, Grenholm said.
The church of Sweden is the largest Lutheran denomination in Europe, with more than six million members.
Female priests were never accepted in society. But times changed and the European Institute for Gender Equality ranked Sweden at the top of its annual equality index, giving the country a score of 83.6 compared to an average of 67.4 for the European Union as a whole.
