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Set against deep red curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Norwegian Lutheran Church issued a formal apology for harm and unequal treatment it had inflicted.

“Norway's church has brought the LGBTQ+ community pain, shame and significant harm,” the lead bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, announced on Thursday. “It was wrong for this to take place and that is why I offer my apology now.”

“Harassment, discrimination and unfair treatment” resulted in certain individuals abandoning their faith, Tveit acknowledged. A worship service at Oslo's main cathedral was scheduled to take place after his statement.

The statement of regret occurred at a venue called London Pub, a bar that was one of two targeted in the 2022 shooting that took two lives and injured nine people severely during Oslo’s Pride celebrations. An individual of Iranian descent living in Norway, who swore loyalty to Islamic State, received a sentence to no less than 30 years in prison for carrying out the attacks.

Like many religions around the world, Norway's church – a Lutheran evangelical community that is the biggest religious group in Norway – historically excluded LGBTQ+ individuals, refusing to allow them from serving as pastors or from marrying in religious ceremonies. In the 1950s, the church’s bishops described gay people as “a global-scale societal hazard”.

However, as Norway's society grew more liberal, ranking as the second globally to allow same-sex registered partnerships back in 1993 and during 2009 the first Scandinavian country to allow same-sex marriage, the church slowly followed.

During 2007, the Norwegian Lutheran Church started appointing gay pastors, and LGBTQ+ partners have been able to have church weddings from 2017 onward. Last year, Tveit joined in Oslo’s Pride parade in what was noted as a first for the church.

The apology on Thursday received varied responses. The head of a network representing Norwegian Christian lesbians, Hanne Marie Pedersen-Eriksen, a lesbian minister herself, called it “a crucial act of amends” and a point in time that “finally marked the end of a painful era within the church's past”.

As stated by Stephen Adom, the director of the Norwegian Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity, the statement was “strong and important” but arrived “too late for those among us who died of Aids … with hearts filled with anguish because the church considered the crisis as punishment from God”.

Internationally, a handful of religious institutions have tried to make amends for their past behavior towards LGBTQ+ people. Last year, the Church of England expressed regret for what it described as “disgraceful” conduct, though it still declines to allow same-sex marriages within the church.

Likewise, the Methodist Church located in Ireland last year expressed regret for “shortcomings in pastoral care and support” regarding the LGBTQ+ community and family members, but stayed firm in its conviction that marriage could only be a bond between male and female.

Earlier this year, Canada's United Church delivered a statement of regret to two spirit and LGBTQIA+ communities, labeling it a confirmation of the church's “dedication to welcoming all and full inclusion” in every part of the church's activities.

“We did not manage to honor and appreciate the wonderful diversity of creation,” Rev Michael Blair, the general secretary of the church, stated. “We have wounded people rather than pursuing healing. We apologize.”