Church of Norway Makes Apology to LGBTQ+ Individuals for ‘Pain, Shame and Significant Harm’
Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.
“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why I offer my apology now.”
“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.
The apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.
Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to marry in church. In the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.
Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.
In 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to marry in church from 2017 onward. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.
Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.
According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but arrived “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the crisis as divine punishment”.
Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to reconcile for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, England's church said sorry for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, although it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.
Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but remained staunch in the view that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.
In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.
“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”