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Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has caused the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated this Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to come after the apology.

The statement of regret occurred at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but arrived “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the crisis as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to offer apologies for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, England's church said sorry for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”