The Norwegian Church Delivers Apology to LGBTQ+ Community for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’

Set against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, the church leader, stated during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to come after the apology.

The apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two attacked during the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

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

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to have church weddings from 2017 onward. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with a mixed reaction. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a difficult period within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to offer apologies for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, England's church said sorry for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, although it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” 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.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”