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Set against red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“The national church has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to take place after his statement.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was given a prison term to no less than 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, Norway's church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to have church weddings starting in 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret elicited differing opinions. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, called it “an important reparation” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “meaningful and vital” but had come “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to make amends for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, England's church expressed regret for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, though it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada offered an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”