🔗 Share this article Church of Norway Issues Apology to LGBTQ+ Community for ‘Harm, Shame and Suffering’ Against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted. “Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I apologise today.” The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to come after the apology. The apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars involved in the 2022 attack that killed two people and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in prison for the killings. Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”. Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed. During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. Last year, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a first for the church. The apology on Thursday received a mixed reaction. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “represented the closure of a painful era in the history of the church”. According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts because the church considered the disease to be God’s punishment”. Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to make amends for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, even as it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in church. In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman. Several months ago, Canada's United Church issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life. “We have failed to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”