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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 discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has brought the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two attacked during the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, Norway's church started appointing gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. Last year, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology received a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, called it “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but arrived “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have sought to reconcile for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, though it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but remained staunch in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of 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” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”