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Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has brought the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church began ordaining gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples could have church weddings from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology was met with varied responses. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

As stated by 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 among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to make amends for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in its conviction that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

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