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Set against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to come after the apology.

The statement of regret took place at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them to become pastors or to marry in church. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

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

In 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to have church weddings since 2017. In 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with differing opinions. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but had come “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have sought to reconcile for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it described as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but remained staunch in the view that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”