🔗 Share this article

Set against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, announced during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 attack that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in prison for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. During the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples have been able to have church weddings starting in 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with differing opinions. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, called it “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a painful era in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “strong and important” but was delivered “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts because the church considered the disease as punishment from God”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to offer apologies for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church said sorry for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it still declines to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but held fast in its belief that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”