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Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The national church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced during a Thursday event. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to follow his apology.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

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 legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to marry in church starting in 2017. During 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday received a mixed reaction. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the disease as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to reconcile for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, though it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year apologised for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but held fast in the view that marriage could only be a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”