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Against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has brought the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, stated during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, Norway's church started appointing homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to have church weddings starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received varied responses. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a painful era within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “strong and important” but arrived “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the crisis as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have sought to make amends for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Church of England said sorry for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, though it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, said. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”