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Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, announced this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A church service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The apology occurred at the London Pub, one among two bars involved in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples back in 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, Norway's church started appointing gay pastors, and same-sex couples were permitted to have church weddings starting in 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology received a mixed reaction. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the disease as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a few churches have attempted to offer apologies for their actions towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, even as it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but remained staunch in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”