🔗 Share this article

Amid red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 attack that killed two people and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday elicited differing opinions. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but arrived “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have sought to reconcile for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, though it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but held fast in its belief that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”