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

Amid red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples could have church weddings since 2017. Last year, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology received a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, a few churches have attempted to make amends for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church apologised for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, although it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”