Church of Norway Makes Apology to LGBTQ+ Community for ‘Pain, Shame and Significant Harm’
Against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.
“The national church has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, declared this Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason today I say sorry.”
The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.
This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years behind bars for the killings.
Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. In the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.
But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and during 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 gay and lesbian couples could marry in church from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.
The apology on Thursday elicited varied responses. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter within the church's past”.
According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “strong and important” but arrived “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the disease as divine punishment”.
Internationally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to offer apologies for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, though it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages within the church.
Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but held fast in its belief that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.
Several months ago, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.
“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”