Kerstin Söderblom (she/her) was born on 29th May 1963, in Darmstadt city, which is located in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan region in Germany. Kerstin’s parents had to leave school before graduating. Her parents worked hard, with her mother becoming a secretary and her father a salesman. Kerstin is the oldest of four siblings, sadly her younger brother passed away too early in 2009. She is married to Ulrike since 2021, while they are in a loving relationship already since 2006.
In Kerstin’s Lutheran family, there was a pronounced emphasis on a philosophically humanist upbringing, especially concerning issues of justice, equality, and respect. Within Kerstin’s childhood family, she was loved and supported. Kerstin describes her parents as holding an insightful humanistic worldview. Furthermore, Kerstin’s parents gifted her and her siblings a transgenerational message emphasizing the profound value and significant importance of education. This understanding served as a guiding principle for her passion and curiosity in school.
Kerstin was typically a shy child, yet she exhibited deep ambition during her educational years. She often found herself in marginal positions within classrooms, surrounded by similarly introverted and gentle individuals. Kerstin experienced a sense of belonging within this small, supportive group. Additionally, she discovered her sensitivity and strong determination through engagement with social justice issues. This resolve motivated Kerstin to, for example, advocate against observed injustices as the student representative already in a school setting.
Sixteen-year-old Kerstin joined a youth choir in year 1978. The choir offered her an invaluable peer group. This choir gathered together similarly aged students. They were curious-mindedly open about questions about life and death as well as their ideas about the potential existence of God. Kerstin was also intrigued to converse and to learn openly about other choir members’ faith and worldviews, regardless of not yet emotionally believing in God herself.
The choir facilitated a sociable space for young Kerstin and her peers to interact and also discuss their thought-provoking singing lyrics, too. Moreover, the choir music included beautiful spiritual and Christian music pieces, too. Their singing included, for example, German composers' classical music pieces from Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven. Moreover, Kerstin also fell in love for the first time with another girl there. Kerstin considered that girl to be her role model, who was outward about her belief in the existence of God. This emotionally charged love for another choir member made an impactful change for Kerstin, however she did not understand her adoring feelings to be feelings of love at that time.
After her school graduation, Kerstin was driven to continue her education. Her career plans and ideas were shaded by self-doubts and insecurities, which were affected by her family’s non-academic background. Regardless, Kerstin considered beginning to learn English and French at the university level. She was also openheartedly considering potential visions for the future of working in a travel agency. Kerstin loved to travel, and experience various parts of the world. She had great doubts about what she could do in her life and how she could gain employment and what she could do professionally.
Kerstin decided to do a gap year in Canada, as she had friend connections in Montreal, Canada, which revolutionized her career ideas substantially. Kerstin stayed around nine months in a guest family in Montreal. Her Canadian guest family had connections to a few professors at Catholic Concordia University. Henceforth, Kerstin was allowed to partake in some university courses, like the English and French language courses as well as some history courses.
Impactfully, the Concordia University also hosted a Catholic Chaplaincy that organized a variety of social events for students. These events included hiking tours, Bible studies, and discussion events. The Catholic Chaplaincy offered another space of heartfelt belonging for Kerstin, as it provided a highly international social environment led by a compassionate senior university chaplain, Mary Ann. The Catholic chaplain, Mary Ann, increasingly invited Kerstin to participate in the preparation of activities once she became familiar with her. Kerstin was gratefully engaged most of the time. As a result, Mary Ann recognized Kerstin’s significant potential, valuing her as a compassionate individual with meaningful insights to share. After Kerstin’s gap year, Mary Ann proposed that she consider studying and reading theology at the university upon her return to Germany.
After an exciting and reflective summer, Kerstin applied and got accepted into the Protestant Faculty of Theology at Heidelberg University in year 1983. Kerstin was then 20 years old. This proved challenging and tough for her, as being a theology student entailed that it is mandatory to study old languages, like Koine Greek and Hebrew.
Further, learning the ancient languages and other subjects like history of the church and theologies led Kerstin into a value crisis. The crisis was caused by conflict, as Kerstin’s deeply held values appeared to be so distant from these course subjects, like church histories. Fortunately, she found refuge and help from the other students, which reduced the value conflict somewhat. In 1984-1985, Kerstin was also granted a scholarship in Montpellier, Southern France, where she studied some New Testament theology and ethics, yet spent most of her time in adventurous travel.
Kerstin had become more mature, and she came out as both a feminist and a lesbian after returning to Hamburg, which was already a large city in 1985. Kerstin was able to see the first lesbian and male couples holding hands in the streets and being visibly present at university societies in Hamburg in the 1980s. Being in Hamburg shaped Kerstin’s life perspectives. In her years there, Kerstin became a lesbian and queer activist, really also not only in a theological sense, but also in a political sense by engaging in the communities of Hamburg.
In the 1980s, Hamburg was struck by the HIV and AIDS crises. During the years of the HIV and AIDS epidemic, Kerstin lost many young friends and their loved ones. This tragic period deeply affected Kerstin, leading her to experience intense and lasting grief for years. At that time, she often felt as though she was attending monthly funerals and losing remarkably close friends or acquaintances frequently. Additionally, she found the overall society and churches' inaction and unwillingness to help during the HIV and AIDS crises to be frustrating, which disheartened her. This period was exceedingly difficult for her emotional well-being. However, these feelings of profound loss and societal and church abandonment motivated Kerstin's involvement in political activism and sparked her passionate work for justice and equality for LGBTQ+ rights.
Subsequently, Kerstin began to reflect on her own position as a theology student and whether she might ever be able to become an ordained Lutheran pastor as a lesbian. In the 1980s, the German Protestant churches, according to Kerstin, were still very sceptical about lesbian and gay issues and considered them controversial. Kerstin challenged this uncertainty, by reading and organizing unofficial feminist theological seminars with a like-minded group of feminist theologian students in Hamburg. They read books by a well-known feminist and lesbian theologian, like Catholic feminist Dr. Mary E. Hunt. They also read texts by American feminist theologian Carter Heyward, et cetera. They also recontextualised and reflected on liberation theology from Latin America. Likewise, the group followed keenly the Netherlands' contemporary theologians, as feminist theological liberation theology was a lot more developed in the Netherlands than in Germany.
During the beginning of 1990s, Kerstin finished her master studies and became involved in a long distance relationship with a women from Göttingen, Northern Germany. Furthermore, Kerstin instigated and completed her PhD, between years 1993–1996. In her PhD, Kerstin wrote pioneering practical theology and anthropology research on the role of religion in lesbian women’s personal development in Germany. Both her university colleagues and her friends protested against choosing this dissertation topic, because of its trailblazing queer theology focus. According to them, the time was too early for it, and they were frightened that Kerstin would be endangering her entire theology career with this topic. Nevertheless, Kerstin felt deeply intrinsically motivated by the topic, deciding to focus on this topic regardless of the heeded warnings.
Kerstin became also involved to the European Forum of LGBT Christian Groups in 1996, which was the first year when the lesbian and bisexual women’s pre-conference was arranged. There Kerstin was associated with Labrystheai Network of lesbian theologians. 4 In the European Forum Kerstin quickly engaged in inclusive liturgy works and the Eastern Europe mentoring program, which is still ongoing at present.
Kerstin fell in love with Norwegian Randi Solberg after meeting her at her first European Forum. 5 The couple in love spent time in New York City between 1998–99. Therein, Kerstin had an opportunity to work for the Lutheran World Federation for the United Nations for a year. In 1999, Kerstin was ordained to become a priest within the Protestant Church in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Kerstin Söderblom’s work with the European Forum also facilitated her involvement in the World Council of Churches, with the Rainbow Pilgrims of Faith group. The Rainbow Pilgrims of Faith unifies queer persons of faith from all the five continents and from different denominations, nationalities and backgrounds. Their work initiated and created space for conversation and workshop’s in The World Council of Churches.
In conclusion, Dr. Kerstin Söderblom goal remains in trying to shape her theology and her churches increasingly queer, LGBTQ+ affirming, and Lesbian feminist as possible. This determination has shined bright throughout her renown scholarly and theologian career. Kerstin Söderblom has published two queer theological books reflecting her work as queer affirming theologian and counsellor: Queer Theologische Notizen (Esuberanza publisher Nieuwegein/Netherlands 2020); and Queer Affirming Pastoral Care (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Publisher, Göttingen/Germany 2024). And she is regularly celebrating queer inclusive rainbow services with an ecumenical team and members form the queer community. Also since 2020, Kerstin Söderblom has been an active University Chaplain of University of Mainz. In the University of Mainz, Kerstin is able to empower and encourage young students, like the impactful Catholic University Chaplain Mary Ann had encouraged her decades earlier.
(This biographical statement written by Elina Mäkinen from an interview with Kerstin Söderblom and was edited by Söderblom.)
Biography Date: July 2025