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Amid crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

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

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in prison for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, preventing them to become pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to have church weddings starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received varied responses. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, called it “an important reparation” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “strong and important” but had come “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts because the church considered the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have tried to make amends for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Church of England said sorry for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, although it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church last year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but stayed firm in the view that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

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