The Norwegian Church Makes Apology to LGBTQ+ Individuals for ‘Pain, Shame and Significant Harm’
Amid red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.
“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, stated this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason today I say sorry.”
“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.
The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.
Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to marry in church. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.
Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.
During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to marry in church starting in 2017. Last year, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.
The Thursday statement of regret was met with varied responses. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the church’s history”.
According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “strong and important” but arrived “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts because the church considered the epidemic as punishment from God”.
Globally, several faith-based organizations have sought to make amends for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.
Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in the view that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.
In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.
“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”