The Norwegian Church Makes Formal Apology to LGBTQ+ Community for ‘Pain, Shame and Significant Harm’
Against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.
“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, announced on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why I offer my apology now.”
The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.
The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that killed two people and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to at least 30 years in prison for the murders.
In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them to become pastors or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.
Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.
During 2007, Norway's church started appointing homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. Last year, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.
The apology on Thursday was met with a mixed reaction. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a painful era in the church’s history”.
As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “strong and important” but had come “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts because the church considered the disease as punishment from God”.
Internationally, several faith-based organizations have sought to reconcile for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, England's church apologised for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, although it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.
In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but remained staunch in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.
In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.
“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”
