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

Amid red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

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

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies since 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited differing opinions. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but had come “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the crisis as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to reconcile for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Church of England said sorry for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but remained staunch in the view that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a confirmation 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 wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”