Norway's Church Makes Sincere Apology to LGBTQ+ People for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’
Set against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.
“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, announced during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and that is why today I say sorry.”
“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.
The statement of regret took place at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that took two lives and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.
Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. In the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.
But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.
In 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples were permitted to have church weddings from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a first for the church.
The apology on Thursday received differing opinions. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.
As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” 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”.
Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to make amends for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, though it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages within the church.
Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but held fast in its belief that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.
Earlier this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.
“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”