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Against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why I offer my apology now.”

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

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to at least 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

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

Back in 2007, Norway's church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to have church weddings starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday elicited differing opinions. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the history of the church”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but arrived “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Globally, a few churches have attempted to make amends for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, England's church said sorry for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, although it still declines to permit gay marriages within the church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but held fast in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a reaffirmation 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, remarked. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”