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Set against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The apology took place at the London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the murders.

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

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to have church weddings since 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited differing opinions. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “finally marked the end 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 was “powerful and significant” but had come “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have sought to reconcile for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Church of England said sorry for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in the view that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”