🔗 Share this article

Against crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has caused the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.

The apology took place at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, Norway's church started appointing gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners could marry in church from 2017 onward. Last year, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret received varied responses. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to 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 Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but had come “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the crisis as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to make amends for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, even as it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but stayed firm in the view that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”