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Against crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has brought LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, announced this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

This formal apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that took two lives and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in prison for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples could get married in religious ceremonies since 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “an important reparation” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “powerful and significant” but had come “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the crisis as divine punishment”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to reconcile for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, though it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and family members, but remained staunch in its conviction that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”