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Amid red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church expressed regret for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

The statement of regret occurred at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that took two lives and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners could get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited differing opinions. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, called it “an important reparation” and a moment that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but had come “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the disease as punishment from God”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to reconcile for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, even as it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but held fast in its belief that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”