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Against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, announced on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and this is why I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to take place after his statement.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners could marry in church starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “strong and important” but was delivered “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have attempted to offer apologies for their past behavior concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland in the past year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their families, but stayed firm in the view that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”