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Against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared during a Thursday event. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The apology took place at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them to become pastors or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples during 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret was met with differing opinions. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “strong and important” but had come “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts because the church considered the disease as punishment from God”.

Globally, a few churches have tried to offer apologies for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, though it still declines to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but held fast in the view that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry.”