Mullally\u2019s accession follows a pattern, as more and more women gain access to leadership positions in churches across the world. As we show in our recent book<\/a>, The First Ordained Women in the Church of Sweden: Narratives of Vocation and Recognition (2026), when their vocation to the priesthood is officially recognised, it gives them self-confidence, self-respect and self-esteem. But it also elicits opposition, with the women themselves usually made responsible for keeping the peace.<\/p>\n On September 28 1958, after decades of ecclesial and societal calls for women\u2019s vocation to be recognised, the Church of Sweden\u2019s General Synod voted to open the priesthood to women. We retraced the narratives of the first 54 women who were ordained between 1960 and 1970. <\/p>\n Proponents of the reform referred to biblical passages such as Galatians 3:28 as promoting equality: \u201cThere is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.\u201d <\/p>\n To their minds, the priest is someone called not to represent Christ (as some opponents believe), but to point towards him. <\/p>\n On Palm Sunday in 1960, Margit Sahlin, then 46, was one of the first three women to be ordained in Sweden. Sahlin\u2019s ordination by Archbishop Gunnar Hultgren took place at the chapel of St Catherine Foundation outside Stockholm. She had long fought<\/a> for womens\u2019 roles in the church to be expanded.<\/p>\n In a diary entry from the mid-1940s, Sahlin described her shock at being told by one leading opponent of female priests, the bishop Bo Giertz, that while Sahlin was welcome to think of herself as a prophet, she shouldn\u2019t delude herself into thinking she had an ecclesial vocation.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be obliged in this way to forge my own path,\u201d Sahlin wrote, \u201cborne only by a personal faith in my vocation, without any external ecclesiastical authority to fall back on, constituted an unreasonable pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n Her belief in herself was undermined by an inferiority complex \u2013 and the criticism to which she was always exposed \u201cas a pioneer\u201d.<\/p>\n As with Mullally, some opponents of Sweden\u2019s early female ordinations invoked biblical passages that could be interpreted as reserving the priesthood for men, and promoting the subordination of women. Others cited different obstacles, including that women would be miserable in a vocation reserved for men.<\/p>\n They also raised the \u201cecumenical argument\u201d \u2013 that such a reform could jeopardise international cooperation with the Church of England, which at that time did not approve of women priests. <\/p>\n To avoid the perceived risk of division of the Church, the 1958 reform included a conscience clause. Similar measures had already been taken by the state churches in Denmark<\/a> and Norway<\/a>. The clause guaranteed that male priests who did not agree would not have to serve alongside ordained women. <\/p>\n In principle, this meant that both proponents and opponents of the reform could continue to serve as priests. However, it had dire consequences, particularly for the women who were ordained. <\/p>\n This conscience clause meant that women\u2019s vocation was fully recognised \u2013 unless opponents were present. In that case, it was the women\u2019s responsibility to safeguard what was referred to as \u201cthe neutral line\u201d, by stepping aside and refraining from priestly duties.<\/p>\n Over time, this created a code of conduct where the burden of keeping the peace fell on the women alone.<\/p>\n It also enabled denial of recognition. For example, the Church Coalition for the Bible and Confession, formed in Sweden in 1958, provided guidelines for how this conscience clause should be interpreted. These guidelines stated, among other things, that laypeople and priests opposing the reform should avoid any contact with ordained women. One of our interviewees, Sofia (not her real name) spoke of the impact this had on her relationships with colleagues:<\/p>\n I have certainly felt disappointment at the absence of fellowship, in everyday life, and at not being able to share the deep joy before the face of God. I have felt particular disappointment at frozen fellowship with former fellow students. Suddenly there was nothing but silence [or] possibly a pleasant facade.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Clara (also not her real name) said that during her studies to be a pastor in 1964, if one of the women gave a sermon in the group, they would all be told: \u201cThat\u2019s fine for a parish evening meeting, but not for the pulpit.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cSometimes,\u201d she recalled, \u201cI was told that the ordination of a woman was ineffective in all circumstances. It could be equated with the baptism of a pig. Sometimes I was so discouraged that I could scarcely bear to go to lectures and practice sessions.\u201d<\/p>\n In his 1995 book The Struggle for Recognition, German philosopher Axel Honneth describes how being denied recognition can impact a person\u2019s development of self-identity. As one of the other Swedish women ordained during the 1960s, Lena Malmgren, later wrote in the G\u00f6teborgs-Posten newspaper: \u201cAnyone who does not respect my faith in God and his calling of me as a priest does not respect anything that is important to me, not the innermost part of my person; he violates my very person.\u201d<\/p>\n Institutional reforms tend to be judged by the moment they are enacted. But it is still often a slow and storied process. Decisive events and dates \u2014 that Palm Sunday in 1960, say \u2013 are merely symbolic starting points for a continued struggle for the requisite structures to be put in place. <\/p>\n However, the Swedish reform did not result in any rupture between the Churches of Sweden and England \u2013 quite the opposite, in fact. The archbishop of Uppsala and primate of the Church of Sweden, Martin Mod\u00e9us, attended Mullally\u2019s installation<\/a> as archbishop on March 25 2026.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/748407\/original\/file-20260716-57-mctduf.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip\")
\n Magnus Aronson, IKON \/ Wikimedia<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\nVocational calling<\/h2>\n
The struggle for recognition<\/h2>\n
\n
\u2018A consequence of the Gospel\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/287431\/count.gif\")
<\/p>\n![Magnus Aronson, IKON \/ Wikimedia<\/a>,](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Biskopsvigning_2014-12-14_001.jpg\"){kind=link}