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Amid red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

The apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars involved in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years behind bars for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples were permitted to marry in church starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday received a mixed reaction. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “too late for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have sought to offer apologies for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, even as it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but remained staunch in its conviction that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

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 the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”