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Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“The national church has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, the church leader, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub, one among two bars involved in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to no less than 30 years behind bars for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, Norway's church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples could marry in church starting in 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received differing opinions. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to offer apologies for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it described as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but held fast in the view that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”