Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.
“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why today I say sorry.”
The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to take place after his statement.
The apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two attacked during the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.
In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.
Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.
During 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners could have church weddings starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.
Thursday’s apology elicited a mixed reaction. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter within the church's past”.
As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the disease to be God’s punishment”.
Worldwide, a few churches have sought to offer apologies for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, although it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.
In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.
Earlier this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.
“We have failed to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”
