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Against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

The apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that took two lives 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 a minimum of three decades in prison for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to marry in church from 2017 onward. 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 a mixed reaction. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “strong and important” but arrived “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to make amends for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, England's church apologised for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, though it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”