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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 harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has caused the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub, one among two bars targeted 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 given a prison term to at least 30 years behind bars for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples were permitted to have church weddings since 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited differing opinions. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a painful era in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but had come “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the crisis as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a few churches have sought to reconcile for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, England's church said sorry for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, though it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”