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Set against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has brought LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

The apology took place at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them to become pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, Norway's church began ordaining gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to marry in church from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday received varied responses. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “powerful and significant” but arrived “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the disease as divine punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have tried to make amends for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, England's church apologised for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”