Norway's Church Issues Sincere Apology to LGBTQ+ Community for ‘Shame, Great Harm and Pain’

Amid crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has brought the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place 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 the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to come after the apology.

The apology took place at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in prison for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. In the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to get married in religious ceremonies 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 apology on Thursday was met with a mixed reaction. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to make amends for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, even as it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but remained staunch in its conviction that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”