🔗 Share this article

Against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, the church leader, stated on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two attacked during the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to at least 30 years behind bars for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. During the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples could marry in church starting in 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited a mixed reaction. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “an important reparation” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to reconcile for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in the view that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”