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Against crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, stated on Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why 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 arranged to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

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

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to have church weddings since 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with varied responses. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, called it “an important reparation” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the crisis as punishment from God”.

Globally, a few churches have tried to offer apologies for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it described as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but held fast in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”