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Set against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, announced this Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 attack that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples could marry in church starting in 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited differing opinions. The leader of an organization of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to reconcile for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church said sorry for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, though it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church last year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

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

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”