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

Amid crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated on Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to come after the apology.

The statement of regret occurred at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to at least 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and same-sex couples could marry in church from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday elicited varied responses. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, called it “an important reparation” and an occasion that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology 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 crisis as punishment from God”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have sought to offer apologies for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, though it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but remained staunch in the view that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”