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Set against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to follow his apology.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars involved in the 2022 attack that took two lives and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to at least 30 years in prison for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to marry in church. During the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with varied responses. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “strong and important” but had come “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have sought to offer apologies for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, though it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but remained staunch in the view that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

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

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”