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Against crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway expressed regret for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has brought the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, stated this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to come after the apology.

The apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to have church weddings since 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited a mixed reaction. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a painful era within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “strong and important” but was delivered “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the disease as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have sought to make amends for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, although it still declines to allow same-sex marriages in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but held fast in its belief that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”