Matias Ikkala is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. In 2015/16 he worked for one year as an intern in the Inter-religious Dialogue and Cooperation team of the WCC.

A postgraduate in religious studies from the University of Helsinki, Matias has studied Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Taoism and Confucianism. He has also written several articles on themes related to religion, arts and spirituality for Finnish magazines, as well as for online websites and blogs.