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Set against crimson theater drapes at a leading Oslo LGBTQ+ venue, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for hurtful actions and exclusion caused by the church.

“Norway's church has inflicted LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared on Thursday. “This should never have happened and which is the reason I apologise today.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” had caused some to lose their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret took place at the London Pub establishment, a bar that was one of two involved in the 2022 shooting that resulted in two deaths and caused serious injuries to nine at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who expressed support for ISIS, received a sentence to a minimum of three decades behind bars for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, Norway's church – an evangelical Lutheran church that is Norway’s largest faith community – had long marginalised LGBTQ+ people, refusing to allow them from joining the clergy or to have church weddings. In the 1950s, bishops of the church referred to homosexual individuals as “a worldwide social threat”.

But as Norwegian society became increasingly liberal, becoming the second in the world to legalize same-sex partnerships back in 1993 and in 2009 the first in Scandinavia to approve gay marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church began ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, and same-sex couples were permitted to get married in religious ceremonies from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit joined in the Pride march in Oslo in what was noted as a first for the church.

The Thursday statement of regret received varied responses. The director of a group for Christian lesbians in Norway, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, who is also a gay pastor, referred to it as “an important reparation” and an occasion that “finally marked the end of a difficult period in the history of the church”.

For Stephen Adom, the leader of Norway’s Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the apology represented “strong and important” but was delivered “too late for those who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish since the church viewed the disease to be God’s punishment”.

Globally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to offer apologies for their actions regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, the Church of England apologised for what it described as “shameful” actions, although it continues to refuse to permit gay marriages in religious settings.

Likewise, Ireland's Methodist Church in the past year expressed regret for its “failures in pastoral support and care” toward LGBTQ+ individuals and family members, but stayed firm in its belief that matrimony must only constitute a union between a man and a woman.

In the early part of this year, the United Church based in Canada delivered a statement of regret to Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ groups, describing it as a reaffirmation of the church’s “commitment to radical hospitality and full inclusion” throughout every area of church life.

“We have failed to honor and appreciate the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, said. “We have hurt individuals in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”