🔗 Share this article

Amid crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, stated on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret took place at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades in prison for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them to become pastors or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret received a mixed reaction. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “powerful and significant” but arrived “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the disease as punishment from God”.

Globally, a few churches have tried to make amends for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, though it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”