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Amid crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“Norway's church has caused the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, stated this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples could get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday received differing opinions. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a painful era in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, a few churches have tried to reconcile for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, although it still declines to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but stayed firm in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”