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Set against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, declared on Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.

The statement of regret occurred at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church started appointing homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples were permitted to have church weddings since 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with differing opinions. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but had come “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the disease as punishment from God”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have sought to offer apologies for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, although it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”