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Against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“Norway's church has caused 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 apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to come after the apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years behind bars for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons 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 back in 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples could have church weddings starting in 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received differing opinions. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts because the church considered the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to make amends for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, although it still declines to permit gay marriages in church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”