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Against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to take place after his statement.

This formal apology took place at the London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 attack 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.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them to become pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday received differing opinions. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the disease as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have tried to reconcile for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, even as it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages within the church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but held fast in the view that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”