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Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

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

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, Norway's church started appointing gay pastors, and same-sex couples could get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology received differing opinions. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but arrived “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the crisis as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have sought to make amends for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but remained staunch in the view that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”