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Against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway expressed regret for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has caused the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and same-sex couples could have church weddings since 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with varied responses. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, called it “an important reparation” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but had come “too late for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to reconcile for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, though it still declines to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in the view that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”