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Against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has brought the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, declared on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

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

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church started appointing homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples could have church weddings from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to reconcile for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, although it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church offered an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”