The Norwegian Church Makes Formal Apology to LGBTQ+ Community for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’

Amid crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has brought LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

The apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that killed two people and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to have church weddings from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday elicited differing opinions. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but had come “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the crisis as punishment from God”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have tried to reconcile for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but held fast in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in 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 every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”