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Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has brought the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples could get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a difficult period within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but was delivered “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have sought to make amends for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”