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Against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church offered an apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The national church has brought LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated on Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

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

During 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining gay pastors, and same-sex couples have been able to have church weddings since 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with varied responses. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but had come “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the crisis as divine punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to offer apologies for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in its belief 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 toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”