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Against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, the church leader, stated this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to follow his apology.

The apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples were permitted to have church weddings from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received a mixed reaction. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “strong and important” but had come “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the crisis as divine punishment”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to offer apologies for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, England's church apologised for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, though it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in church.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but held fast in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”