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

Set against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has brought the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub, one of two bars involved in the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to no less than 30 years behind bars for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them to become pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with varied responses. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but had come “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to offer apologies for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church said sorry for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, even as it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but remained staunch in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”