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Against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to come after the apology.

The apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 attack that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance 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, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples could get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited varied responses. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a difficult period within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “strong and important” but had come “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the crisis as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have sought to reconcile for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it described as “shameful” actions, though it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but held fast in its conviction that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality 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 church's general secretary, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”