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Against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars involved in the 2022 attack that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining gay pastors, and same-sex couples have been able to marry in church since 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with differing opinions. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a painful era in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “strong and important” but had come “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have sought to make amends for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, England's church expressed regret for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, even as it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but remained staunch in the view that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”