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

Amid red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway offered an apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has brought LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to follow his apology.

The apology took place at the London Pub, one among two bars involved in the 2022 attack that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with varied responses. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the disease as divine punishment”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to make amends for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, though it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”