🔗 Share this article

Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has caused the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday was met with a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a difficult period within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “strong and important” but arrived “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to offer apologies for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but remained staunch in the view that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”