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Against crimson theater drapes 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,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

The apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples could marry in church from 2017 onward. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology was met with differing opinions. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and a moment that “represented the closure of a painful era in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but arrived “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have tried to reconcile for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Church of England said sorry for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but held fast in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”