Norway's Church Delivers Formal Apology to LGBTQ+ People for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’
Amid deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.
“The national church has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I apologise today.”
“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.
This formal apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars involved in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.
Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.
Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.
In 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a first for the church.
The Thursday statement of regret was met with differing opinions. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era within the church's past”.
As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the disease as punishment from God”.
Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have sought to offer apologies for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church expressed regret for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, although it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.
In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but stayed firm in the view that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.
Several months ago, the United Church of Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.
“We have failed to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”