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Set against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has brought the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, announced this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

The apology was delivered at the London Pub, one among two bars involved 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 swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in prison for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to have church weddings since 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday elicited a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, called it “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 the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the disease as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have sought to make amends for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, although it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but stayed firm in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

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

“We have failed to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”