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Set against red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has brought LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub, one of two bars involved in the 2022 attack that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to at least 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

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

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples were permitted to marry in church starting in 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with varied responses. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “strong and important” but arrived “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have sought to offer apologies for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. In 2023, the Church of England said sorry for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it still declines to permit gay marriages in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but held fast in its conviction that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”