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Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The national church has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced this Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to come after the apology.

The statement of regret occurred at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to at least 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to marry in church since 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “represented the closure of a difficult period within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but had come “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the crisis as punishment from God”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to make amends for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Church of England said sorry for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, although it still declines to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in its conviction that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”