Church of Norway Delivers 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 offered an apology for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has brought LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology received differing opinions. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but had come “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the disease as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to reconcile for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, though it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but held fast in the view that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”