Jeremy Pemberton appeals the tribunal case
by Ian Paul, Psephizo:
I previously reported on the Employment Tribunal case of Jeremy Pemberton versus Richard Inwood, retired Acting Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, and the debate on BBC 2’s Victoria Derbyshire show between Jeremy and myself. Jeremy has been gracious enough to comment on the blog from his perspective, and a couple of days ago his partner, Laurence Cunnington, notified me that Jeremy has been granted leave to appeal the case.
[…] What Jeremy is asking is for a secular court to tell bishops that they are wrong in their definition of the church’s doctrine. Furthermore, they should state that as the bishops’ error leads them to discriminate in the eyes of the law they must therefore not apply what they believe to be doctrine in the exercise of their office of bishop within the church of God. In other words, were he to win his appeal, two major consequences would follow, particularly given the appeal judgment will have wider application than his own specific case:
- A secular court would have determined the church’s doctrine and reading of Scripture over the heads of, and in contradiction of, the bishops of the church
- Nobody would (unless what is currently held to be the doctrine was restated clearly by the church or the ruling over-turned by higher court) be able to continue to minister as a bishop, or be appointed as a bishop, if their conscientious understanding of their role and the Bible’s and the church’s teaching required them to refuse a licence to someone who was in a same-sex marriage.
The level of state control of the church that this represents is something that I have not heard anybody defend. Yet it must be defended as it seems to be the incontrovertible consequence of Jeremy’s appeal succeeding and thus what he – and those who support him in pursuing his case – must desire or at least be willing to accept as an outcome. What is astonishing is that it seems many Christians who present themselves as “liberal” and “inclusive” and “post-Christendom” or “anti-Christendom” are either blind to or unconcerned about these implications of their pursuit of “justice” by the means Jeremy is pursuing it.
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