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Against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment caused by the church.

“Norway's church has caused LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” led to a loss of faith for some, Tveit acknowledged. A church service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to take place after his statement.

This formal apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and left nine seriously injured throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, was sentenced to no less than 30 years behind bars for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships in 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

During 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy, and gay and lesbian couples could marry in church since 2017. During 2023, Tveit joined in the Oslo Pride event in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday elicited differing opinions. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “represented the closure of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “meaningful and vital” but was delivered “too late for those who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts as the church regarded the epidemic to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have sought to offer apologies for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church expressed regret for what it characterized as “disgraceful” conduct, though it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but stayed firm in the view that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”