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Set against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The national church has brought the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, announced during a Thursday event. “This should never have happened and this is why I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to follow his apology.

This formal apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 attack that took two lives and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, preventing them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as a “social danger of global proportions”.

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

During 2007, Norway's church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples could marry in church starting in 2017. Last year, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret received varied responses. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the disease as punishment from God”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have sought to offer apologies for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, England's church expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, although it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a confirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, said. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”