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Amid crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has brought the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to come after the apology.

This formal apology took place at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars involved in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church began ordaining gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners could have church weddings from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with differing opinions. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but had come “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the disease as punishment from God”.

Globally, a few churches have tried to reconcile for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Church of England said sorry for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, even as it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings 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 their families, but stayed firm in the view that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”