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Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has brought LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, declared on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners could have church weddings since 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, described it as “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 the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “strong and important” but was delivered “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the disease as divine punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have tried to reconcile for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, though it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but remained staunch in its conviction that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

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

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”