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Against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church expressed regret for discrimination and harm perpetrated over the years.

“The church in Norway has caused the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, declared on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” had caused some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was arranged to follow his apology.

The apology was delivered at the London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in incarceration for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. During the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples could marry in church from 2017 onward. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Pride march in Oslo in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “represented the closure 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 “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts as the church regarded the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, a few churches have tried to offer apologies for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, England's church apologised for what it referred to as “disgraceful” conduct, although it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church the previous year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but stayed firm in its belief that marriage should only represent a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church issued an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We are sorry.”