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Against crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, announced during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to follow his apology.

This formal apology took place at the London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 attack that killed two people and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, received a sentence to at least 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to marry in church since 2017. Last year, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday elicited a mixed reaction. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a difficult period within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but had come “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the disease as punishment from God”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to offer apologies for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, England's church apologised for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but held fast in its conviction that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”