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Amid crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that 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 planned to come after the apology.

The apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in prison for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing gay pastors, and same-sex couples have been able to have church weddings since 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday received varied responses. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but arrived “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have tried to make amends for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, England's church said sorry for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it still declines to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but held fast in the view that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church offered an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”