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

Amid red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

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

The apology took place at the London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples could have church weddings starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with varied responses. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but arrived “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to reconcile for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, England's church apologised for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, though it still declines to permit gay marriages within the church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but held fast in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”