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Against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The national church has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

The apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's 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, the church’s bishops described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church started appointing gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to have church weddings since 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited varied responses. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but had come “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have tried to offer apologies for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, England's church said sorry for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, though it still declines to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but held fast in the view that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”