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

“The church in Norway has caused the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to follow his apology.

The apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to at least 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, preventing them to become pastors or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples could have church weddings starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received differing opinions. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, called it “an important reparation” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the history of the church”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but had come “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to reconcile for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Anglican Church apologised for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, though it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but remained staunch in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”