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Against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, stated during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to come after the apology.

The apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in prison for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, Norway's church started appointing gay pastors, and same-sex couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a first for the church.

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

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but had come “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the crisis as punishment from God”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to make amends for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but stayed firm in the view that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in 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 failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, said. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”