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Amid crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

The apology was delivered at the London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples were permitted to marry in church from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret received differing opinions. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to reconcile for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, England's church said sorry for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, though it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but remained staunch in the view that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, said. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”