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Against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“The national church has caused the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to come after the apology.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to at least 30 years behind bars for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to have church weddings from 2017 onward. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited differing opinions. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion 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 represented “meaningful and vital” but arrived “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have sought to make amends for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, though it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, said. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”