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Set against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated this Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to come after the apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that took two lives and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined 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, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to marry in church from 2017 onward. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited a mixed reaction. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “strong and important” but had come “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have tried to reconcile for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, even as it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but stayed firm 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 based in Canada delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”