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Amid deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has brought LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, declared on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned 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 took two lives and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners could have church weddings starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to reconcile for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Church of England said sorry for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, though it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but held fast in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”