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Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to take place after his statement.

This formal apology took place at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples could have church weddings starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret received differing opinions. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the crisis as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to make amends for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, even as it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”