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Amid crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to come after the apology.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

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

During 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners could have church weddings since 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology received differing opinions. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but arrived “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have tried to offer apologies for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, England's church said sorry for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it still declines to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch 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 issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”