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

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

The statement of regret occurred at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to at least 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing gay pastors, and same-sex couples were permitted to have church weddings starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but arrived “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have sought to reconcile for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, even as it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but remained staunch in the view that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

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

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”