Norway's Church Delivers Apology to LGBTQ+ Individuals for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’

Amid deep red curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has caused the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared this Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in prison 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 – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from serving as pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners could get married in religious ceremonies since 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with differing opinions. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, called it “an important reparation” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a painful era in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but arrived “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have tried to offer apologies for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in the view that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”