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Amid red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has brought the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, stated this Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to follow his apology.

This formal apology took place at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two attacked during the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies since 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited a mixed reaction. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the history of the church”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “strong and important” but arrived “too late for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the crisis as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to reconcile for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Church of England said sorry for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, although it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but held fast in its belief that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”