The Diocese of Lund is the southernmost diocese in the Church of Sweden. The territory of the diocese corresponds to the provinces of Blekinge and Scania. There are 217 parishes within the diocese, the largest number in any of the dioceses of the Church of Sweden. The present bishop of Lund is Antje Jackelén. She succeeded Christina Odenberg, the first female bishop in Sweden, in 2007.

History

The diocese was formed in 1060, in what was then Danish territory, by separation from the Diocese of Roskilde, then both suffragans of the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen. The provinces of (north-western) Scania and Halland were under its jurisdiction.

The two other provinces of the Scanian lands, Blekinge and Bornholm, were on the other hand under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Dalby. At the earliest in 1067, the Dalby diocese was however merged into the Lund diocese.

In 1104, the diocese became an archdiocese of its own competent for Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Norway got its own Archbishop of Nidaros in 1152, and Sweden its Archbishop of Uppsala in 1164, although the Swedish archbishop remained for a long time nominally subordinate to the Archbishop of Lund. At the time of the Reformation in 1536, the office of archbishop was abolished in Denmark, and Lund was demoted to an ordinary diocese. Initially, the Lutheran bishops were called superintendents.

In 1658 Lund, together with the Scanian lands fell under the government of Sweden (never to be reclaimed, except for short intervals during later wars), and Lund became subordinate to the Archbishop of Uppsala.