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Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The national church has brought LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, announced this Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to come after the apology.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to marry in church starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited a mixed reaction. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to make amends for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but stayed firm in the view that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”