Church of Norway Delivers Apology to LGBTQ+ People for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’

Amid deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to follow his apology.

This formal apology took place at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them to become pastors or to marry in church. In the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. Last year, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology was met with differing opinions. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to make amends for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, even as it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but held fast in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”