Church of Norway Makes Apology to LGBTQ+ People for ‘Shame, Great Harm and Pain’

Set against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has brought the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, declared on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I apologise today.”

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

The apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to at least 30 years behind bars for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to marry in church from 2017 onward. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received a mixed reaction. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “strong and important” but was delivered “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the crisis as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to make amends for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, though it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but held fast in its conviction that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”