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Against red stage curtains at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has inflicted LGBTQ+ people pain, shame and significant harm,” the presiding bishop, the church leader, stated on Thursday. “This should never have happened and this is why today I say sorry.”

“Unequal treatment, harassment and discrimination” led to some to lose their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

The statement of regret was delivered at the London Pub establishment, one among two bars involved in the 2022 attack that resulted in two deaths 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 behind bars for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Norwegian Lutheran Church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – for years sidelined the LGBTQ+ community, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. Back in the 1950s, the church’s bishops referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, emerging as the world's second to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and during 2009 the initial Nordic nation to approve gay marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to get married in religious ceremonies starting in 2017. During 2023, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as an unprecedented step for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited a mixed reaction. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, herself a gay pastor, described it as “a significant step toward healing” and a moment that “signaled the conclusion of a dark chapter within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the leader of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but was delivered “not in time for those who passed away from AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have sought to reconcile for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Church of England said sorry for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, even as it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages within the church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland the previous year issued an apology for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but remained staunch in its belief that marriage could only be a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church of Canada delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, describing it as a renewed commitment of its “pledge to complete acceptance and open hospitality” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, said. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We express our regret.”