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Amid deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

This formal apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in prison for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

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

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to have church weddings starting in 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received varied responses. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but had come “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have sought to reconcile for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but remained staunch in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”