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Set against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway offered an apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to take place after his statement.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners could marry in church from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with varied responses. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “represented the closure of a difficult period within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the crisis as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a few churches have sought to reconcile for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, though it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community 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 of Canada offered an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a confirmation 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 beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”