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Against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to come after the apology.

This formal apology took place at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in prison for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

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

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to have church weddings since 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited differing opinions. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Globally, a few churches have sought to make amends for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but held fast in the view that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”