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Against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Church of Norway expressed regret for hurtful actions and exclusion perpetrated over the years.

“The national church has caused the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” bishop Olav Fykse Tveit, Bishop Tveit, announced on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why today I say sorry.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused certain individuals abandoning their faith, the bishop admitted. A worship service at Oslo Cathedral was planned to follow his apology.

This formal apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one among two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that resulted in two deaths and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in incarceration for the killings.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. During the 1950s, bishops of the church characterized LGBTQ+ persons as “a worldwide social threat”.

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

In 2007, the Church of Norway started appointing gay pastors, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to marry in church starting in 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was described as a first for the church.

Thursday’s apology elicited varied responses. The leader of an organization for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie, who is also a gay pastor, called it “a significant step toward healing” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a dark chapter in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the head of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “powerful and significant” but was delivered “not in time for those among us who died of Aids … carrying heavy hearts since the church viewed the epidemic as divine punishment”.

Worldwide, a handful of religious institutions have tried to reconcile for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Church of England expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, although it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages in church.

Similarly, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year issued an apology for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but remained staunch in its conviction that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Earlier this year, the United Church based in Canada issued an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing 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 celebrate and delight in the beauty of all creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We are sorry.”