Fridtjov Søiland Birkeli (26 May 1906 – 17 September 1983) was a Norwegian Lutheran missionary, writer, magazine editor, and bishop.

[1][2] After studying the French language in Paris, he was ordained as a missionary priest by Bishop Johan Lunde of Oslo in 1933.

While he was Bishop of Oslo, he had the honor of performing the marriage ceremony of Crown Prince Harald and Sonja Haraldsen in 1968.

The bishops collegium received a letter with accusations, as part of a blackmail, regarding the fact that Birkeli had secretly resumed a relationship with a girlfriend from his youth days.

The bishops concluded that Birkeli ought to resign from his position as front figure of the Church of Norway as soon as possible, before an eventual revelation in the media.