The Norwegian Church Issues Apology to LGBTQ+ Individuals for ‘Pain, Shame and Significant Harm’

Amid deep red curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The national church has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, the church leader, announced during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and this is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars involved in the 2022 attack that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday received differing opinions. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but arrived “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the disease as divine punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to offer apologies for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, though it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but remained staunch in its conviction that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”