The Norwegian Church Makes Formal Apology to LGBTQ+ Community for ‘Pain, Shame and Significant Harm’

Against crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has brought LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.

The apology took place at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 attack that killed two people and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them to become pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples could get married in religious ceremonies since 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday received varied responses. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have sought to offer apologies for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, England's church said sorry for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, although it still declines to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but stayed firm in the view that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”