Overview
- Presiding Bishop Olav Fykse Tveit said the church had caused “shame, great harm and pain” and issued a formal apology on behalf of Norway’s bishops.
- The London Pub, where the statement was delivered, was one of two bars targeted in 2022, when two people were killed and nine injured; the attacker later received a 30-year sentence.
- Responses were mixed, with pastor Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen calling the move an important reparation and activist Stephen Adom saying it came too late for those lost during the AIDS crisis.
- The Church of Norway has shifted policy over time, ordaining gay pastors since 2007 and allowing same-sex marriages in church since 2017.
- The public apology followed a 2022 bishops’ acknowledgment of inflicted pain, with a service scheduled at Oslo Cathedral after the event.