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Set against crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has caused the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to at least 30 years in incarceration for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

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

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining gay pastors, and same-sex couples could have church weddings since 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with differing opinions. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a painful era within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “strong and important” but was delivered “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the crisis as divine punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have tried to offer apologies for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, although it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church last year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in all of your beautiful creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, said. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”