🔗 Share this article

Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 attack that killed two people and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called an unprecedented step 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 “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but had come “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Globally, a few churches have sought to reconcile for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but stayed firm in the view that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”