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Set against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The apology took place at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two attacked during the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in prison for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to marry in church since 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology received differing opinions. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but arrived “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the crisis as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have tried to make amends for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages within the church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but remained staunch in the view that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing 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 not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”