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Against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars attacked during 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, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples have been able to marry in church since 2017. In 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with differing opinions. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “strong and important” but had come “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the disease as punishment from God”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to offer apologies for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, though it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”