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Set against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The national church has brought the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to take place after his statement.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two attacked during the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years behind bars for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or to marry in church. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons 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 during 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners could get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology received differing opinions. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but had come “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the disease as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to offer apologies for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, though it still declines to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”