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Amid red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, stated this Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I apologise today.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” resulted in a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to follow his apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years behind bars for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – had long marginalised the LGBTQ+ community, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to marry in church. During the 1950s, church leaders characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and by 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

Back in 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church commenced the ordination of homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples could marry in church since 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology received varied responses. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “represented the closure of a difficult period within the church's past”.

For Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the statement was “strong and important” but had come “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the disease as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a few churches have tried to reconcile for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Anglican Church apologised for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, even as it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in the view that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing 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 honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have hurt individuals instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”