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Against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“The national church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

The apology was delivered at the London Pub, one of two bars involved in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with varied responses. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “strong and important” but arrived “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the disease as punishment from God”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to make amends for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, though it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but held fast in its conviction that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

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

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”