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Against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, announced this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

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

This formal apology took place at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two attacked during the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to marry in church starting in 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited differing opinions. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the disease as divine punishment”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to offer apologies for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Church of England said sorry for what it described as “shameful” actions, though it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but remained staunch in the view that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology 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 all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”