The Norwegian Church Makes Apology to LGBTQ+ Individuals for ‘Shame, Great Harm and Pain’

Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars involved in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, preventing them to become pastors or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining gay pastors, and same-sex couples could marry in church starting in 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited varied responses. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but had come “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to reconcile for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it described as “shameful” actions, although it still declines to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but remained staunch in its conviction that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”