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Set against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway offered an apology for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine 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 the murders.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

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

Back in 2007, Norway's church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to have church weddings from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday received differing opinions. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the crisis as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have sought to reconcile for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, although it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but remained staunch in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, said. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”