BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM
In an emotional and historic moment, the Church of Norway formally apologized to LGBTQ+ individuals for decades of discrimination, exclusion, and suffering it caused. Presiding Bishop Olav Fykse Tveit delivered the apology on Thursday at Oslo’s London Pub, which is one of the city’s most iconic LGBTQ+ spaces and a site of tragic violence during the 2022 Oslo Pride shooting.
“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” Tveit acknowledged. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today.”
Standing before red stage curtains in the very space where two people were killed and nine seriously injured, the bishop’s words marked more than just a public gesture. They symbolized a long-overdue reckoning with a painful past.
Tveit recognized that years of “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had led some to lose their faith. A special service held at Oslo Cathedral later that day offered a moment for collective mourning, reflection, and, hopefully, healing.
A shift from exclusion to inclusion
For much of its history, the Church of Norway, the country’s largest religious institution and part of the Evangelical Lutheran tradition, stood in opposition to LGBTQ+ rights. The church had once denied LGBTQ+ people the right to become pastors, marry in church, or even be accepted fully in their faith community. In the 1950s, church bishops went so far as to describe gay people as a “social danger of global proportions.”
But as Norwegian society evolved, becoming one of the first countries to legalize same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and then same-sex marriage in 2009, the church began to follow suit. It ordained its first openly gay pastors in 2007. By 2017, same-sex couples could marry in the church. In 2023, Tveit walked in the Oslo Pride parade.
These changes were hard-won and far from instantaneous, but they paved the way for the recent apology. “It was a moment that finally marked the end of a dark chapter in the church’s history,” said Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a gay pastor and leader of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway. She called the bishop’s apology “an important reparation.”
Reactions: gratitude, grief, and a call for more
The church’s statement was met with a complex mix of emotions. The community felt relief, validation, and also a deep, enduring sorrow. For Stephen Adom, head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was meaningful, but it arrived too late for many.
“It’s strong and important,” he said, “but it came too late for those among us who died of AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the epidemic to be God’s punishment.”
The apology is a powerful step, but many believe it must be accompanied by continued action, both symbolic and practical, to ensure full inclusion and to repair the harms of the past.
A global movement for accountability
The Church of Norway’s apology joins a growing, global chorus of religious institutions seeking to make amends. In 2023, the Church of England apologized for its “shameful” treatment of LGBTQ+ people, though it still does not allow same-sex marriages in church. The Methodist Church in Ireland expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support,” while holding firm to traditional definitions of marriage.
Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada offered a deeply moving apology to Two Spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities. “We have failed to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” said Rev. Michael Blair. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”
For many LGBTQ+ people of faith, these apologies, while long overdue, offer a glimmer of hope that institutions rooted in tradition can evolve, acknowledge past mistakes, and help create more inclusive futures.
As the Church of Norway takes this important step, it sends a message not only to those it hurt, but also to other institutions around the world: reconciliation begins with humility, but it must be followed by justice and love.
