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

Against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

The apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades in prison for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to marry in church starting in 2017. Last year, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology was met with a mixed reaction. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but had come “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Globally, a few churches have sought to reconcile for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, England's church expressed regret for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”