The Norwegian Church Issues Apology to LGBTQ+ Community for ‘Shame, Great Harm and Pain’

Amid crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, stated during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday received varied responses. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have tried to make amends for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”