🔗 Share this article

Set against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to come after the apology.

The apology occurred at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to marry in church. During the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to marry in church since 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “strong and important” but had come “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Globally, a few churches have attempted to reconcile for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Church of England said sorry for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, though it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but stayed firm in the view that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing 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 rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”