Norway's Church Issues Formal Apology to LGBTQ+ Community for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’

Amid crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated this Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in prison for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them to become pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday elicited differing opinions. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but arrived “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the crisis as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to make amends for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, even as it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”