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Amid crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway offered an apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The national church has caused the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated this Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The apology occurred at the London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, received a sentence to at least 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

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

During 2007, Norway's church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples have been able to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with varied responses. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, called it “an important reparation” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, a few churches have attempted to make amends for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, England's church said sorry for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church offered an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”