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Against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

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

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to come after the apology.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to at least 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples could have church weddings from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with a mixed reaction. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, called it “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have sought to make amends for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church last year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in its belief 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 delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”