The Norwegian Church Makes Apology to LGBTQ+ People for ‘Shame, Great Harm and Pain’
Against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.
“The national church has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, declared this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why today I say sorry.”
The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to come after the apology.
This formal apology took place at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in prison for the murders.
Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.
Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.
In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples have been able to marry in church starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.
Thursday’s apology was met with differing opinions. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.
According to 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 because the church considered the disease as punishment from God”.
Globally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to reconcile for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, England's church said sorry for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in church.
In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but remained staunch in the view that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.
Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada 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” in all aspects of church life.
“We did not manage to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”
