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Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The apology was delivered at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples were permitted to marry in church starting in 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with varied responses. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “strong and important” but arrived “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the disease as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have attempted to reconcile for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it still declines to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but stayed firm in the view that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, 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 wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”