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Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“The national church has brought LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, declared this Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was planned to come after the apology.

The apology took place at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to a minimum of three decades in prison for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops 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 during 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and LGBTQ+ partners could get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday elicited differing opinions. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “represented the closure of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to make amends for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but stayed firm in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have not succeeded to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”