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Set against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has brought the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, announced on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub, 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. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years behind bars for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining gay pastors, and same-sex couples were permitted to marry in church from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received differing opinions. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the crisis as divine punishment”.

Globally, a few churches have sought to offer apologies for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, although it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but remained staunch in the view that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”