Norway's Church Makes Apology to LGBTQ+ People for ‘Shame, Great Harm and Pain’
Against crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.
“The church in Norway has caused the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why I apologise today.”
The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to come after the apology.
The apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two attacked during the 2022 attack that took two lives and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in prison for carrying out the attacks.
Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.
However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.
In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.
The Thursday statement of regret was met with differing opinions. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.
As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “powerful and significant” but had come “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the disease to be God’s punishment”.
Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to reconcile for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church said sorry for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, although it still declines to permit gay marriages in religious settings.
Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but stayed firm in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.
Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.
“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”
