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Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to come after the apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples have been able to have church weddings since 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday received differing opinions. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but arrived “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have sought to reconcile for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church last year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but stayed firm in its conviction 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, labeling it a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”