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Amid red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, stated during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them to become pastors or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples have been able to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology elicited varied responses. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to make amends for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but remained staunch in the view that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality 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, stated. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”