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Amid 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 perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades in prison for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from serving as pastors or to marry in church. In the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples could marry in church since 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with varied responses. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but arrived “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the disease as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to reconcile for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, the Church of England said sorry for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, though it still declines to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but held fast in the view that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”