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Against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, announced on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and this is why I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” resulted in a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was planned to come after the apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 attack 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, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, preventing them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, Norway's church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to 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 elicited a mixed reaction. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “strong and important” but had come “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the disease as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a few churches have tried to reconcile for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. During 2023, the Church of England said sorry for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, though it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada offered an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing 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 honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”