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Set against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church expressed regret for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, declared on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that took two lives and injured nine people severely throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in prison for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or to have church weddings. During the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. In 2023, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret received varied responses. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the crisis as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a few churches have sought to make amends for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Church of England expressed regret for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, although it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages within the church.

In a similar vein, Ireland's Methodist Church last year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but stayed firm in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”