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Against crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated this Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years behind bars for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to marry in church from 2017 onward. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with a mixed reaction. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a painful era in the church’s history”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have attempted to reconcile for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Anglican Church said sorry for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in its conviction that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”