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Against crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The national church has brought LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, the church leader, stated on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit recognized. A religious service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

The apology was delivered at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and left nine seriously injured at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to at least 30 years in prison for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining gay pastors, and same-sex couples have been able to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. During 2023, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday was met with varied responses. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “meaningful and vital” but arrived “overdue for individuals among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the disease as punishment from God”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have attempted to offer apologies for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, England's church apologised for what it described as “shameful” actions, though it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and their relatives, but stayed firm in the view that marriage should only represent a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, Canada's United Church offered an apology to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to celebrate and delight in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Reverend Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”