Norway's Church Delivers Apology to LGBTQ+ Individuals for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’

Against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, declared during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I offer my apology now.”

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

The apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to at least 30 years behind bars for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to marry in church since 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited differing opinions. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but was delivered “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the crisis as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, a few churches have tried to offer apologies for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, England's church apologised for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, although it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but held fast in its conviction that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”