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Against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated on Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in prison for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity 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 legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. In 2023, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology elicited 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 an occasion that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the disease as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to make amends for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Church of England expressed regret for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but held fast in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church 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” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”