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Set against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has caused the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that took two lives and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, Norway's church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples could get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with a mixed reaction. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, called it “an important reparation” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but arrived “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to offer apologies for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, although it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

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

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”