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Set against deep red curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, Norway's national church expressed regret for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“The national church has inflicted LGBTQ+ individuals harm, suffering and humiliation,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, the church leader, declared on Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and that is why I offer my apology now.”

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

The statement of regret was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars attacked during the 2022 attack that killed two people and caused serious injuries to nine during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the murders.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and in 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples could marry in church starting in 2017. In 2023, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The Thursday statement of regret received varied responses. The director of a group representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie, herself a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and a moment that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter in the church’s history”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the head of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology was “strong and important” but arrived “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the crisis to be God’s punishment”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have sought to offer apologies for historical treatment towards LGBTQ+ people. During 2023, the Church of England apologised for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it persists in refusing to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their relatives, but held fast in the view that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret toward Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals, labeling it a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” throughout every area of church life.

“We did not manage to rejoice and take pleasure in the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, remarked. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We express our regret.”