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Set against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, stated on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret occurred at the London Pub, one among two bars attacked during the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

In 2007, Norway's church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples could marry in church starting in 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with a mixed reaction. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “strong and important” but had come “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, a few churches have attempted to make amends for historical treatment regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2023, England's church expressed regret for what it referred to as its “shameful” treatment, even as it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but stayed firm in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a renewed commitment of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate all of your beautiful creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, said. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”