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Amid red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church expressed regret for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and that is why today I say sorry.”

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

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in prison for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – 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 “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, Norway's church started appointing homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples could have church weddings from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday was met with varied responses. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “powerful and significant” but had come “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the disease as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to make amends for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it still declines to permit gay marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it 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 celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”