Church of Norway Delivers Formal Apology to LGBTQ+ Community for ‘Pain, Shame and Significant Harm’

Set against deep red curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“The national church has brought LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to take place after his statement.

The apology took place at the London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 attack that took two lives and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in prison for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church began ordaining gay pastors, and same-sex couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with a mixed reaction. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the crisis as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have tried to offer apologies for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, England's church said sorry for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, although it still declines to permit gay marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but remained staunch in the view that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”