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Set against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has caused the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret occurred at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to at least 30 years in prison for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining gay pastors, and same-sex couples could get married in religious ceremonies since 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday was met with a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “strong and important” but was delivered “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have sought to make amends for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, though it still declines to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”