🔗 Share this article

Set against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated on Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years behind bars for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to marry in church starting in 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received varied responses. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the disease as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to offer apologies for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, even as it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but stayed firm in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”