🔗 Share this article

Amid crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The national church has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.

The apology took place at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years behind bars for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing gay pastors, and same-sex couples have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. Last year, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited a mixed reaction. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, 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 painful era in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but had come “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have tried to make amends for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, though it still declines to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but stayed firm in the view that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

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

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”