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Amid red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The national church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared this Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to come after the apology.

This formal apology took place at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday received a mixed reaction. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but arrived “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the crisis as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have tried to offer apologies for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, though it still declines to allow same-sex marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but held fast in its conviction that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”