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

Amid crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has brought LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, stated during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

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

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples could get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a difficult period within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but had come “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have sought to reconcile for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, although it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but held fast in its belief that marriage could only be 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, labeling it a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”