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Amid deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“Norway's church has brought the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners could have church weddings starting in 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a painful era within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the crisis as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to make amends for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but stayed firm in the view that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”