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Against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway offered an apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has brought the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to come after the apology.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples could marry in church since 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited differing opinions. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a painful era in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have sought to reconcile for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, though it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality 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,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”