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Against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to have church weddings from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited varied responses. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, called it “an important reparation” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion 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 was “strong and important” but was delivered “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the disease as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have sought to reconcile for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, although it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but held fast in its conviction that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

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

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”