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Set against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated this Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

This formal apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to marry in church starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited a mixed reaction. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “represented the closure of a painful era within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but had come “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the disease as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to reconcile for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church said sorry for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, although it still declines to allow same-sex marriages in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in its conviction that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”