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Set against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared on Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to come after the apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology was met with varied responses. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a painful era within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to reconcile for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, although it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”