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

Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I offer my apology now.”

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

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two attacked during the 2022 attack that took two lives and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners could have church weddings starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited varied responses. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, 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”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” 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, several faith-based organizations have tried to make amends for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, even as it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but held fast in its conviction that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”