Norway's Church Issues Sincere Apology to LGBTQ+ People for ‘Pain, Shame and Significant Harm’
Against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.
“The national church has brought LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, the church leader, announced during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”
“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.
This formal apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades behind bars for carrying out the attacks.
Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them to become pastors or to marry in church. During 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 allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.
Back in 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to have church weddings from 2017 onward. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.
Thursday’s apology was met with varied responses. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the history of the church”.
According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but arrived “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the crisis to be God’s punishment”.
Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have tried to offer apologies for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, though it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.
Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.
Several months ago, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.
“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”