Church of Norway Delivers Formal Apology to LGBTQ+ Individuals for ‘Pain, Shame and Significant Harm’
Set against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.
“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, announced during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why I offer my apology now.”
“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to follow his apology.
The apology took place at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars attacked during 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 a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the killings.
In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.
Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.
During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a first for the church.
Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.
For Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, 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 because the church considered the disease as divine punishment”.
Worldwide, a few churches have tried to make amends for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, England's church expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, although it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.
Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.
Earlier this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.
“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, said. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”