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Against deep red curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has brought LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to take place after his statement.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 attack that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. 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 the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church started appointing gay pastors, and same-sex couples could marry in church from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “strong and important” but had come “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the crisis as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a few churches have sought to make amends for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church apologised for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, though it still declines to permit gay marriages in church.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but held fast in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a renewed commitment 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,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”