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Against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has caused the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.

The apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars involved in the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, preventing them to become pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, Norway's church began ordaining gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples could have church weddings starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology received a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the crisis as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to offer apologies for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, even as it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church last year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but held fast in the view that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”