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Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has caused the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The apology occurred at the London Pub, one among two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years 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 LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, Norway's church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to have church weddings from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with differing opinions. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “represented the closure of a difficult period within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “strong and important” but had come “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts because the church considered the disease as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have tried to offer apologies for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, though it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but held fast in its belief that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

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

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”