🔗 Share this article

Against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has caused the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

This formal apology took place at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars involved in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners could have church weddings starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with a mixed reaction. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but arrived “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to make amends for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, although it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”