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

“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Olav Fykse Tveit, stated on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to follow his apology.

The apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars involved in the 2022 violent incident that killed two people and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from joining the clergy or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and by 2009 the first Scandinavian country to approve gay marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

In 2007, the Church of Norway began ordaining gay pastors, and same-sex couples have been able to marry in church from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited varied responses. The head of a network for Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a painful era in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “strong and important” but had come “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the crisis as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, several faith-based organizations have sought to offer apologies for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it described as its “shameful” treatment, though it still declines to authorize same-sex weddings in church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance 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 based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have not succeeded to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We express our regret.”