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Set against red stage 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.

“The church in Norway has caused the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, stated on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to follow his apology.

The apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that took two lives and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, Norway's church started appointing gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to have church weddings since 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited varied responses. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have sought to reconcile for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in the view that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”