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Set against crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and this is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners could marry in church from 2017 onward. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with differing opinions. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but arrived “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the crisis as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have sought to reconcile for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, England's church expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, although it still declines to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but remained staunch in the view that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, said. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”