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Set against crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to take place after his statement.

The apology occurred at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 attack that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to at least 30 years behind bars for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from serving as pastors or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and same-sex couples have been able to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited a mixed reaction. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “an important reparation” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the disease as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have tried to reconcile for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it described as “shameful” actions, although it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but held fast in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”