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Set against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has brought the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, declared during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars involved in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with differing opinions. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but arrived “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to offer apologies for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”