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Against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

This formal apology took place at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two attacked during the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to marry in church. In the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to have church weddings from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era 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 “strong and important” but arrived “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have tried to offer apologies for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, although it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but held fast in its belief that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”