Church of Norway Delivers Formal Apology to LGBTQ+ Individuals for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’

Set against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to come after the apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in prison for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – 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 characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to marry in church since 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “strong and important” but had come “too late for those who lost their lives to 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 reconcile for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, although it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in church.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but stayed firm in the view that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”