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Amid crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident 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 at least 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or to marry in church. In the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, Norway's church started appointing gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples could have church weddings starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday elicited differing opinions. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, called it “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a painful era in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but arrived “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have sought to reconcile for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, England's church apologised for what it described as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but held fast in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”