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Set against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared on Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why today I say sorry.”

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

This formal apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to at least 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them to become pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples were permitted to marry in church since 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, called it “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, a few churches have tried to make amends for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, England's church said sorry for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, though it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in church.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church last year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, said. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”