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Set against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The national church has caused the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to come after the apology.

This formal apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining gay pastors, and same-sex couples were permitted to have church weddings starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited varied responses. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “an important reparation” and an occasion that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the disease as divine punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have sought to make amends for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, even as it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but held fast in its conviction that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”