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Amid deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

The apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing gay pastors, and same-sex couples were permitted to marry in church starting in 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited a mixed reaction. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “strong and important” but arrived “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the crisis as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a few churches have tried to make amends for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church expressed regret for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, though it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but remained staunch in its conviction 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+ communities, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”