Gerard & Gerdine Willemsen

We hope as church that we shall find new ways to make the Christian faith relevant to the secularised Sweden of today.

Gerard and Gerdien Willemsen live in Stockholm since the summer of 2012. Before that, they had been living since 1991 in Lapland, lastly in Kiruna, the most northerly city in Sweden.

After 8 years in Rotebro, a northern suburb, Gerdien serves now as pastor for a local church of Uniting Church in Sweden in the south of Stockholm which tries to reach out to the secularized people there. It is a small congregation but with a wish tocreate contacts in many different ways, in which Gerdien with her experience can give an important contribution. As the only pastor in this church, her task encomprises as well pastoral care, counselling, preaching but also activities aimed at social and youth work. Her experience with different creative methods is very valuable there. Growth does not go fast in Stockholm but new people have joined and also a small youthwork has started.

Gerard retired in the summer of 2026 officially from his position as International Director of the Uniting Church in Sweden. But he still does some Sámi church work (the indigenous people of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia) and other indigenous peoples. He works with ways to present the Gospel to those groups in an accessible way. He visits churches in Sweden to motivate for mission. He is also part time Senior Lecturer at the theological department of Stockholm University College, where the Church educates its pastors. Among other things he is one of the responsible persons fort he newly established one-year missionary education program. He is also the cluster leader for ECMI in the Nordic countries.