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Against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has caused the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, stated during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to come after the apology.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in incarceration for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church 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 in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday received varied responses. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have sought to reconcile for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Church of England said sorry for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, even as it still declines to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in its conviction that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”