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Amid red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway expressed regret for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.

The apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in prison for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners could get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. Last year, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with varied responses. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, a few churches have sought to reconcile for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, though it still declines to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but remained staunch in the view that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”