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Set against deep red curtains at a well-known Oslo location for LGBTQ+ gatherings, the Church of Norway expressed regret for discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has brought the LGBTQ+ community harm, suffering and humiliation,” the lead bishop, the church leader, declared this Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why today I say sorry.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” led to a loss of faith for some, the bishop admitted. A religious service at the cathedral in Oslo was arranged to follow his apology.

The apology was delivered at a venue called London Pub, one of two bars targeted in the 2022 violent incident that took two lives and injured nine people severely at Oslo's Pride event. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, was given a prison term to at least 30 years in incarceration for carrying out the attacks.

In common with various worldwide religions, the Church of Norway – an evangelical Lutheran church that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, preventing them from joining the clergy or to marry in church. During the 1950s, church leaders referred to homosexual individuals as a “social danger of global proportions”.

Yet, with Norwegian society turning more progressive, becoming the second in the world to permit registered partnerships for same-sex couples in 1993 and by 2009 the first in Scandinavia to legalize same-sex marriage, the religious institution eventually adapted.

During 2007, Norway's church started appointing homosexual ministers, and gay and lesbian couples were permitted to have church weddings since 2017. Last year, the bishop took part in the Oslo Pride event in what was noted as a historic moment for the religious institution.

The apology on Thursday was met with varied responses. The director of a group of Christian lesbians in Norway, Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, referred to it as “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “signaled the conclusion of a difficult period within the church's past”.

According to Stephen Adom, the leader of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “powerful and significant” but had come “overdue for individuals who lost their lives to AIDS … with hearts filled with anguish as the church regarded the epidemic as punishment from God”.

Worldwide, a few churches have tried to reconcile for their past behavior regarding LGBTQ+ individuals. Last year, England's church expressed regret for what it characterized as its “shameful” treatment, although it continues to refuse to authorize same-sex weddings in religious settings.

In a similar vein, the Methodist Church in Ireland last year expressed regret for “inadequate pastoral assistance and care” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but held fast in the view that matrimony must only constitute a partnership of one man and one woman.

Several months ago, the United Church of 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” in all aspects of church life.

“We have failed to rejoice and take pleasure in the beauty of all creation,” Michael Blair, the church's general secretary, stated. “We have wounded people in place of fostering completeness. We apologize.”