Church of Norway Makes Sincere Apology to LGBTQ+ People for ‘Shame, Great Harm and Pain’
Against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.
“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, announced this Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason today I say sorry.”
The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.
The statement of regret occurred at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in prison for the killings.
Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.
But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.
During 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples could get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.
The Thursday statement of regret elicited a mixed reaction. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a painful era in the history of the church”.
According to Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “too late for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the epidemic as divine punishment”.
Globally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to offer apologies for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, though it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.
Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but stayed firm in the view that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.
Several months ago, the United Church of Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing 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 rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”
