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Amid 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 shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, announced this Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to at least 30 years in prison for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples could get married in religious ceremonies since 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday received varied responses. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, 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”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “powerful and significant” but arrived “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have sought to make amends for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, although it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, 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,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”