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Against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I apologise today.”

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

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in prison for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples could get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday elicited differing opinions. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “strong and important” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, a few churches have tried to reconcile for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, though it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church last year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but held fast in its belief that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”