Congo sacks British canon over gay marriage
by George Conger, Anglican Ink:
An African diocese has stripped a high profile English priest of his title of canon, declaring the Rev. Jeremy Pemberton’s same-sex marriage and his agitation for change in the Church of England’s teachings on human sexuality renders him unqualified to hold the honorary title in the Congolese church.
In a letter dated 25 March 2017 to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s advisor for Anglican affairs, the Rt. Rev. Anthony Poggo, the Bishop of Boga in the Anglican Province of the Congo stated the Rev. Jeremy Pemberton is “no longer recognized” as a canon of Boga Diocese.
On 11 April 2014 Mr. Pemberton, a hospital chaplain in Lincolnshire, became the first serving priest of the Church of England to enter into a same-sex marriage. Weeks after his marriage to Laurence Cuttington was solemnized, Mr. Pemberton, a divorced father of five, was banned from taking a position as a chaplain for the National Health Service in Nottinghamshire by the Bishop of Southwell.
Mr. Pemberton, who is chairman of the gay church pressure group OneBodyOneFaith (formerly the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement) brought suit through Britain’s employment tribunal against the Church of England, claiming his ban violated secular law. In December 2016 the Mr. Pemberton lost his final appeal before the Employment Appeal Tribunal, effectively ending his attempt to force the Church of England to change its teachings through the civil court system.
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