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Amid deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“The national church has brought LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to follow his apology.

The apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars involved in the 2022 attack that killed two people and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years behind bars for the murders.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and same-sex couples have been able to have church weddings 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 of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “represented the closure 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 apology represented “powerful and significant” but had come “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the disease as divine punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to offer apologies for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. During 2023, England's church said sorry for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, although it persists in refusing to allow same-sex marriages in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland in the past year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but remained staunch in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, labeling it 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 all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, remarked. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”