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Set against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway expressed regret for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two attacked during the 2022 attack that killed two people and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to no less than 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church began ordaining gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to have church weddings starting in 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts because the church considered the crisis as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have sought to reconcile for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, England's church apologised for what it referred to as “shameful” actions, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage should only represent a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church 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” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”