Church of Norway Makes Apology to LGBTQ+ People for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’
Set against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.
“The church in Norway has caused the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced this Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why today I say sorry.”
The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to follow his apology.
The statement of regret took place at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the murders.
Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.
Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.
During 2007, Norway's church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.
Thursday’s apology elicited varied responses. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period in the history of the church”.
As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the epidemic as punishment from God”.
Internationally, a few churches have attempted to reconcile for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, though it still declines to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.
Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but held fast in its belief that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.
In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.
“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”
