🔗 Share this article

Against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited differing opinions. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “strong and important” but had come “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to make amends for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, although it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church last year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but held fast in its conviction that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”