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Amid red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has brought LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I apologise today.”

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

This formal apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades in prison for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from serving as pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday received differing opinions. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but arrived “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the crisis as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have attempted to make amends for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, although it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but held fast in the view that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, 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 every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”