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Amid red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to come after the apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in prison for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to marry in church starting in 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with varied responses. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but arrived “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have tried to offer apologies for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, England's church apologised for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but remained staunch in the view that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”