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Against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church expressed regret for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has caused the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to have church weddings since 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with a mixed reaction. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to make amends for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Church of England said sorry for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, although it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”