The Norwegian Church Makes Apology to LGBTQ+ Individuals for ‘Shame, Great Harm and Pain’

Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

This formal apology took place at the London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades behind bars 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 – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples were permitted to marry in church since 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology elicited a mixed reaction. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a painful era within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the crisis as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have sought to offer apologies for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, though it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”