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Amid crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, stated on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars involved in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to marry in church. In the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, Norway's church started appointing homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners could have church weddings starting in 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited varied responses. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a painful era within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “strong and important” but arrived “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have tried to reconcile for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church expressed regret for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, although it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church offered an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”