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Amid crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The national church has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated on Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to come after the apology.

The apology occurred at the London Pub, one of two bars attacked during 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 given a prison term to a minimum of three decades behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but arrived “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, a few churches have sought to offer apologies for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, although it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

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 its belief that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a renewed commitment 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 all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”