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Against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has brought the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, declared on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub, one among two bars involved in the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in prison for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples were permitted to marry in church since 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received varied responses. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “an important reparation” and an occasion that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the crisis as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have sought to reconcile for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Church of England expressed regret for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church last year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but held fast in its conviction that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”