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Amid deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

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

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to at least 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining gay pastors, and same-sex couples could marry in church since 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited differing opinions. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a painful era in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have tried to reconcile for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, although it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but remained staunch in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”