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Amid deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I offer my apology now.”

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

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

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

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples have been able to have church weddings since 2017. Last year, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited differing opinions. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “represented the closure of a painful era in the history of the church”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but had come “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have tried to offer apologies for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in the view that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in 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.”