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Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday was met with differing opinions. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “powerful and significant” but had come “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the crisis as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have tried to reconcile for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, though it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”