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Amid deep red curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and that is why today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to follow his apology.

The apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to have church weddings starting in 2017. Last year, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday received varied responses. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the crisis as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have attempted to reconcile for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, even as it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”