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

Against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has brought LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to come after the apology.

The apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in prison for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples could get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday received a mixed reaction. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a painful era in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “strong and important” but arrived “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the crisis as divine punishment”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to make amends for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, though it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but held fast in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”