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Against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to follow his apology.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. Last year, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology was met with a mixed reaction. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “strong and important” but had come “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts because the church considered the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to make amends for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, even as it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but stayed firm in the view that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”