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Against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church expressed regret for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to have church weddings since 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but had come “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have tried to offer apologies for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, England's church apologised for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, although it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but held fast in its conviction that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”