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Amid deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

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

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

The apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years behind bars for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them to become pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church started appointing gay pastors, and same-sex couples could marry in church starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received differing opinions. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a painful era within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have sought to offer apologies for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, even as it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but held fast in the view that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”