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Amid crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The national church has brought LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in prison for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to marry in church. In the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies since 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday elicited a mixed reaction. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “strong and important” but had come “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have sought to offer apologies for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”