The Norwegian Church Makes Formal Apology to LGBTQ+ Community for ‘Pain, Shame and Significant Harm’
Set against 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 church in Norway has brought the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today.”
The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to follow his apology.
The statement of regret took place at the London Pub, one among two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.
Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.
However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.
In 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and same-sex couples were permitted to marry in church starting in 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.
Thursday’s apology was met with differing opinions. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.
As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “strong and important” but arrived “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the disease as punishment from God”.
Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to offer apologies for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church said sorry for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, though it still declines to permit gay marriages in church.
Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.
Several months ago, Canada's United Church issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.
“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”