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Amid red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars involved in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in prison for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During 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 back in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and same-sex couples have been able to have church weddings starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology received a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but arrived “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have attempted to offer apologies for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, though it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but held fast in its conviction that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, said. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”