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Against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The national church has brought LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

This formal apology took place at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to no less than 30 years behind bars for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology received a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “powerful and significant” but had come “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the disease as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to offer apologies for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, though it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”