Norway's Church Makes Apology to LGBTQ+ People for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’
Amid deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.
“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why today I say sorry.”
“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.
This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.
Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. Back 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 allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.
In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples could have church weddings from 2017 onward. In 2023, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.
The apology on Thursday received a mixed reaction. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period in the church’s history”.
For Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “strong and important” but was delivered “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as punishment from God”.
Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to make amends for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it described as “shameful” actions, although it still declines to permit gay marriages in religious settings.
In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.
Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.
“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”