The Norwegian Church Makes Sincere Apology to LGBTQ+ People for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’

Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway offered an apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, declared this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.

The apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 attack that took two lives and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to marry in church. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples could marry in church starting in 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology received a mixed reaction. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “represented the closure 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 was “meaningful and vital” but had come “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the disease as punishment from God”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to offer apologies for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, England's church apologised for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it still declines to permit gay marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but remained staunch in the view that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

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

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”