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Amid red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The national church has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The apology occurred at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 attack that killed two people and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to marry in church since 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited varied responses. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have tried to make amends for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but remained staunch in the view that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”