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Amid red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated this Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to take place after his statement.

The apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in prison for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples could have church weddings since 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but had come “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to make amends for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it described as “shameful” actions, though it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but held fast in its belief that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

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

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”