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Against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church offered an apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to come after the apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that killed two people and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

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

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday was met with a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts because the church considered the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have sought to offer apologies for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but held fast in the view that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

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

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”