🔗 Share this article

Amid crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

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

The apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years behind bars for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, Norway's church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples have been able to have church weddings starting in 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but had come “too late for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have tried to make amends for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, though it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but stayed firm in the view that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”