Norway's Church Delivers Formal Apology to LGBTQ+ People for ‘Shame, Great Harm and Pain’

Against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

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.

In 2007, Norway's church began ordaining gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to marry in church from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday elicited differing opinions. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “represented the closure of a painful era in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “strong and important” but arrived “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts because the church considered the crisis as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have attempted to make amends for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”