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Amid red stage curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, Norway's national church expressed regret for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ individuals shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “This ought not to have occurred and which is the reason I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A religious service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to come after the apology.

This formal apology took place at the London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them to become pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, bishops of the church described gay people as a “social danger of global proportions”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to allow same-sex registered partnerships during 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, Norway's church commenced the ordination of gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. Last year, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was called a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday received varied responses. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a significant step toward healing” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but had come “overdue for individuals who passed away from AIDS … carrying heavy hearts because the church considered the crisis as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a few churches have sought to reconcile for their actions concerning the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, the Anglican Church apologised for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, even as it still declines to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Similarly, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” to LGBTQ+ people and their relatives, but stayed firm in the view that matrimony must only constitute a bond between male and female.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a renewed commitment 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 wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, stated. “We caused pain to people instead of seeking wholeness. We apologize.”