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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 harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The national church has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to follow his apology.

The statement of regret occurred at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars involved 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 had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from serving as pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining gay pastors, and same-sex couples were permitted to marry in church starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with varied responses. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a moment that “represented the closure of a difficult period within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but was delivered “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the crisis as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a few churches have tried to reconcile for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it described as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but held fast in its belief that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret 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 did not manage to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”