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Set against crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Norwegian Lutheran Church offered an apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The national church has caused LGBTQ+ people harm, suffering and humiliation,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, announced on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and which is the reason today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to follow his apology.

This formal apology occurred at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

Similar to numerous global faiths, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Protestant Lutheran denomination that is Norway’s largest faith community – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, denying them the opportunity from serving as pastors or to marry in church. During the 1950s, church leaders described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

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

In 2007, Norway's church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples have been able to have church weddings since 2017. Last year, Tveit participated in the Pride march in Oslo in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology was met with a mixed reaction. The leader of an organization representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, described it as “an important reparation” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “not in time for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, several faith-based organizations have tried to offer apologies for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Anglican Church apologised for what it described as “shameful” actions, though it persists in refusing to authorize same-sex weddings within the church.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church located in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” 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, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, characterizing it as a confirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Reverend Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”