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Against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church expressed regret for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has caused the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, declared this Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to come after the apology.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 attack that took two lives and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years behind bars for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals 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 by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples were permitted to marry in church from 2017 onward. Last year, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with varied responses. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to reconcile for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, England's church apologised for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, although it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in church.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”