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

Amid red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The national church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, received a sentence to at least 30 years in incarceration for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

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

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to get married in religious ceremonies since 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received varied responses. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a painful era in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the disease as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a few churches have sought to reconcile for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it still declines to permit gay marriages in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but held fast in the view that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, 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 did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”