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Set against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.

The statement of regret took place at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to at least 30 years behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples have been able to have church weddings from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday received varied responses. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “strong and important” but arrived “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the disease as divine punishment”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have sought to make amends for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, England's church apologised for what it described as “shameful” actions, although it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in its conviction that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church of 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 failed to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”