Church of Norway Issues Sincere Apology to LGBTQ+ Community for ‘Shame, Great Harm and Pain’

Set against deep red curtains 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 brought LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to take place after his statement.

The apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in prison for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, Norway's church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology elicited differing opinions. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a painful era in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “too late for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the crisis as divine punishment”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to make amends for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church said sorry for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, though it still declines to permit gay marriages in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”