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Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, declared on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology received differing opinions. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but arrived “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the disease as divine punishment”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to make amends for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, England's church said sorry for what it described as “shameful” actions, although it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but remained staunch in the view that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”