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Amid deep red curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to come after the apology.

The apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 attack that killed two people and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples could get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with differing opinions. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “strong and important” but was delivered “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to make amends for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Anglican Church apologised for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, although it still declines to allow same-sex marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”