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Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.

This formal apology took place at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two attacked during the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. 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 legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received differing opinions. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “too late for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have tried to reconcile for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, England's church expressed regret for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, although it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but held fast in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

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

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”