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Amid crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to come after the apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades in prison for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with differing opinions. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “strong and important” but was delivered “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts because the church considered the crisis as divine punishment”.

Globally, a few churches have tried to make amends for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, England's church apologised for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, although it still declines to permit gay marriages in church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but held fast in its conviction that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada issued an apology 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 celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”