🔗 Share this article

Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, declared on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

The apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and same-sex couples have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited a mixed reaction. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a moment that “represented the closure of a difficult period within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the disease as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to offer apologies for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, though it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but held fast in its belief that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”