The Pub London, a flagship venue for the LGBTQI movement in Oslo, was the setting chosen by the president of the Church of Norway to apologise for the ‘pain’ caused to this community.

The country’s largest Christian institution has “failed again and again”, causing “shame and great harm”, said Olav Fykse Tveit, presiding bishop, in a speech that can be read here.

The highest representative of institutional Lutheranism apologised for not having changed the official doctrine earlier, which now allows gay couples to marry in its churches. He also apologised on behalf of his institution for not hiring homosexuals in the past or for “excluding from church communities many who defied the norms regarding gender and relationships”.

According to Olav Fykse Tveit, there are many “examples of discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment”, including the “prevailing narrative about what kind of love is right or wrong, and pressure from the church to hide or deny their true selves”.

The ‘grace’ of LGBTQI groups towards the Church

For this reason, said the current leader of mainstream Lutheranism, “it is an act of generosity” that LGBTQI organisations in Norway, “who once felt condemned by the church, have welcomed us with open arms. That is grace”, he said.

In 2017, the Church of Norway ceased to be a state-linked national church, although it continues to receive funding from taxes collected by the government.

Since 2007, it has allowed people in same-sex relationships to hold positions in the Church, and in 2016 it began to officiate same-sex marriages.

More rainbow flags and ‘safe spaces’

But the bishops who attended the LGBTQI affirmation ceremony on 16 October believe that much remains to be done. The president of the Church of Norway mentioned in his speech the promotion of more ‘safe spaces’ for people who identify with the opposite sex, flying more rainbow flags on church buildings, holding more “rainbow church services” and participating more actively in Oslo's Pride parades.

On a global level, Bishop Tveit also denounced “violence and stigmatisation, often justified by religious arguments” and thanked LGBTQI members who “despite the oppression, did not give up on faith”.

The position of other Christians

In 2024, 36 organisations (including Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals and Evangelical Lutherans) denounced the government’s “activism” and “pressure” on LGBTQI issues, which restricted the religious freedom of those who maintain a historical Christian understanding of marriage and sexual identity. On that occasion, the Lutheran Church, which is much more liberal theologically, said that the position of Catholics and free evangelicals was “disappointing” and “a poor use of Scripture”.

Asked about the current trends in churches, Norwegian journalist Espen Ottosen explained to Evangelical Focus that there is still a bishop in the Church of Norway who does not support same-sex marriage, a position that”‘many pastors and probably many lay people” also hold.

“I would think that many Christians in the Church of Norway can acknowledge that something has been said in the past about homosexuality that was not respectful. However, that is not the same as saying that the church should fully support an LGBTQ lifestyle”, he adds.

Support for a traditional view of marriage is much more common in Norway among “Pentecostal churches and Lutheran free churches”, but even in some of these contexts, debates around how to approach LGBTQI issues arise.

Many Christians who trust the Bible as the Word of God, says the journalist, “would like to hold to an orthodox traditional view on sexual ethics while acknowledging that this should be done with respect towards people in the LGBTQI community”.