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Amid red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to come after the apology.

The apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that killed two people and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years behind bars for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. Back in the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and during 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday elicited varied responses. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but arrived “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the disease as punishment from God”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have sought to make amends for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, although it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but stayed firm in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We have hurt individuals rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”