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Amid deep red curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, stated this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to at least 30 years behind bars for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, preventing them to become pastors or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to have church weddings since 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology received a mixed reaction. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but arrived “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have sought to make amends for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, although it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but stayed firm in the view that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in 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” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”