🔗 Share this article

Amid crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, declared during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.

This formal apology took place at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars involved in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 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 the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, Norway's church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited varied responses. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “powerful and significant” but arrived “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have tried to make amends for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it described as “shameful” actions, though it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but held fast in the view that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”