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Set against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“Norway's church has brought the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared on Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During 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 during 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples could have church weddings from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology elicited varied responses. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, called it “an important reparation” and a moment that “represented the closure of a painful era in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “strong and important” but had come “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the crisis as divine punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have sought to offer apologies for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, 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 based in Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, said. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”