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Amid deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, announced on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in prison for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church began ordaining gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to marry in church from 2017 onward. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received differing opinions. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, called it “an important reparation” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but had come “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have tried to reconcile for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, England's church apologised for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, although it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”