Church of Norway Issues Sincere Apology to LGBTQ+ Individuals for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’

Amid red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has brought LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, announced this Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples could have church weddings from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday was met with varied responses. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have sought to make amends for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but held fast in its conviction that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”