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Against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The national church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared on Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church started appointing homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology elicited a mixed reaction. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to make amends for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church apologised for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, though it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church last year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, describing it as a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”