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Set against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub, one among two bars involved in the 2022 attack that killed two people and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years behind bars for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners could marry in church from 2017 onward. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology was met with differing opinions. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the crisis as divine punishment”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have sought to make amends for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality 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 wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”