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Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has brought LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub, one of two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years behind bars for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

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

During 2007, Norway's church began ordaining gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to marry in church since 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited varied responses. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “represented the closure of a painful era in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have attempted to offer apologies for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, although it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but remained staunch in its conviction that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”