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Against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

The statement of regret took place at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to marry in church. During the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, Norway's church started appointing gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies since 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday received differing opinions. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, called it “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the history of the church”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the crisis as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to offer apologies for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, though it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but remained staunch in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”