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Against deep red curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway expressed regret for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that killed two people 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 at least 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and same-sex couples have been able to marry in church since 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but had come “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, a few churches have tried to offer apologies for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, England's church said sorry for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but held fast in the view that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”