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Amid crimson theater drapes at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway issued a formal apology for discrimination and harm caused by the church.

“Norway's church has inflicted the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, the church leader, stated this Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I offer my apology now.”

The “discrimination, unequal treatment and harassment” had caused a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to follow his apology.

The apology occurred at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 attack that killed two people and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. A Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to a minimum of three decades behind bars for the killings.

Similar to numerous global faiths, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the most extensive faith community in the country – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from joining the clergy or from marrying in religious ceremonies. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, emerging as the world's second to legalize same-sex partnerships during 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to legalize same-sex marriage, the church gradually changed.

In 2007, Norway's church started appointing homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples have been able to marry in church starting in 2017. In 2023, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was called an unprecedented step for the church.

The apology on Thursday elicited differing opinions. The head of a network of Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a painful era in the history of the church”.

According to Stephen Adom, the director of the Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Norway, the apology was “strong and important” but arrived “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with deep sorrow in their hearts since the church viewed the crisis as punishment from God”.

Globally, several faith-based organizations have sought to make amends for historical treatment concerning the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, the Anglican Church expressed regret for what it characterized as “shameful” actions, though it continues to refuse to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year apologised for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their families, but remained staunch in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

Several months ago, the United Church based in Canada offered an apology to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, characterizing it as a renewed commitment of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Michael Blair, the top administrative leader of the church, remarked. “We caused pain to people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”