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Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, the church leader, stated this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two involved 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 had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited varied responses. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but arrived “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the disease as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a few churches have sought to reconcile for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, though it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but held fast in the view that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church issued 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 have failed to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”