Norway's Church Makes Formal Apology to LGBTQ+ Individuals for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’

Set against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has caused the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that killed two people and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in prison for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to have church weddings from 2017 onward. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with differing opinions. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, called it “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but arrived “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts because the church considered the disease as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have sought to offer apologies for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, though it still declines to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but held fast in the view that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

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