🔗 Share this article

Against crimson theater drapes 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 brought the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The apology was delivered at a venue called 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 at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples were permitted to have church weddings since 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited differing opinions. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “strong and important” but had come “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to offer apologies for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, 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 apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but held fast in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”