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Set against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway expressed regret for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The national church has brought the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives 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, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. During the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples have been able to get married in religious ceremonies since 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with a mixed reaction. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “strong and important” but was delivered “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have sought to make amends for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but remained staunch in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”