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

Amid deep red curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies since 2017. Last year, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology elicited differing opinions. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but had come “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the crisis as punishment from God”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to reconcile for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, even as it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but stayed firm in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”