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Amid crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has brought the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to take place after his statement.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 attack 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 no less than 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships 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 gay pastors, and same-sex couples were permitted to marry in church since 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with a mixed reaction. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to offer apologies for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, although it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”