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Set against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“Norway's church has caused the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

The apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church began ordaining gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples could have church weddings starting in 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday received varied responses. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a painful era within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but had come “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to make amends for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but remained staunch in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”