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Against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has brought LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to follow his apology.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to at least 30 years behind bars for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners could get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. Last year, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday elicited differing opinions. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but had come “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have tried to offer apologies for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, England's church said sorry for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, though it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”