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Amid red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret occurred at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that took two lives and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples could marry in church since 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received varied responses. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but arrived “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the disease as divine punishment”.

Globally, a few churches have sought to reconcile for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, England's church apologised for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, although it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but held fast in the view that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”