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Amid crimson theater drapes at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, Norway's national church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has caused the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, the church leader, announced this Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why I offer my apology now.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was arranged to come after the apology.

This formal apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine throughout the Oslo Pride festivities. A Norwegian of Iranian origin, who expressed support for ISIS, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in incarceration for the killings.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is the most extensive faith community in the country – for years sidelined LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity to become pastors or to marry in church. Back in the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, Norway's church began ordaining homosexual ministers, and same-sex couples were permitted to marry in church since 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a historic moment for the religious institution.

Thursday’s apology elicited a mixed reaction. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a painful era within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “strong and important” but was delivered “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Globally, a few churches have sought to make amends for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, England's church said sorry for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in church.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” to LGBTQ+ people and their families, but held fast in its belief that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, characterizing it as a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in all aspects of church life.

“We did not manage to celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”