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Against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

The apology occurred at the London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades in incarceration for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners could get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology was met with varied responses. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, called it “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a painful era in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the crisis as divine punishment”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to reconcile for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, though it still declines to permit gay marriages within the church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church last year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but held fast in its belief that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church offered an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”