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Against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has brought LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The apology took place at the London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples 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 LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to marry in church from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with a mixed reaction. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a painful era in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “strong and important” but had come “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the crisis as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to offer apologies for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, although it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in its conviction that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, 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 have not succeeded to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”