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Against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to follow his apology.

The apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that took two lives and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to marry in church. In the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining gay pastors, and same-sex couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology received differing opinions. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a painful era within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but arrived “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the disease as divine punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have sought to reconcile for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it described as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”