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Amid red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated this Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to come after the apology.

The apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. In the 1950s, church leaders 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 legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining gay pastors, and same-sex couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received a mixed reaction. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, called it “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, a few churches have attempted to reconcile for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, although it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church 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 matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church offered an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”