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Against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The apology occurred at the London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths 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 behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. Last year, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday was met with varied responses. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but had come “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to reconcile for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Church of England said sorry for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, though it still declines to permit gay marriages within the church.

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

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”