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Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I apologise today.”

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

This formal apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, Norway's church started appointing homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to have church weddings starting in 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited varied responses. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, called it “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the crisis as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to reconcile for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, although it still declines to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”