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Set against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, declared on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars targeted 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 expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in prison for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them to become pastors or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples could have church weddings starting in 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “strong and important” but had come “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to reconcile for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, although it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, 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, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret 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 failed to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”