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Against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has brought LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to come after the apology.

This formal apology took place at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to at least 30 years in prison for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, called it “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but arrived “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the disease as punishment from God”.

Globally, a few churches have tried to reconcile for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church last year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but held fast in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”