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Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced 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 the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

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

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners could marry in church starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited a mixed reaction. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, called it “an important reparation” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but arrived “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to make amends for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Church of England expressed regret for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, though it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”