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Against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has brought the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars involved in the 2022 attack that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing gay pastors, and same-sex couples have been able to get married in religious ceremonies since 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with a mixed reaction. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but arrived “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to offer apologies for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, although it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but stayed firm in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”