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Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway offered an apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two attacked during the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday received a mixed reaction. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, called it “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “powerful and significant” 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 divine punishment”.

Worldwide, a few churches have sought to make amends for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, England's church said sorry for what it described as “shameful” actions, though it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but held fast in the view that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”