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Amid crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, the church leader, announced this Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. 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 of two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in incarceration for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to have church weddings from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology received a mixed reaction. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “too late for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to reconcile for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, though it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but held fast in its conviction that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”