Jeremy Pemberton loses employment appeal
by Ian Paul, Psephizo:
It was announced yesterday that Jeremy Pemberton has lost all appeals at the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) that he brought in relation to his Employment Tribunal (ET) case brought against Richard Inwood, Acting Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham. At one level there is not much to say on this, since the EAT has confirmed in the clearest terms the ruling of the ET. But there continue to be inaccuracies in reporting on this and its significance, so it is worth being clear what has been said.
Jeremy had entered a same-sex marriage, against the teaching position of the Church, and as a result he had received a formal rebuke from the Bishop of Lincoln, whose licence he had as a hospital chaplain, and had had his Permission to Officiate in Southwell and Nottingham, where he lived, revoked. (Neither of these requires any legal process.) He then applied for and was appointed to a post as a Chaplain in Southwell and Nottingham, but was not granted a new licence by the bishop here, and so could not take up the post, since the hospital trust required that he had a licence as a priest ‘in good standing’ in order to conduct Anglican worship in the chapel. Jeremy initiated the ET case, claiming discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 and harassment in light of the distress the process caused him.
The initial judgement ruled that the Church had a clear exemption under paragraph 2 of schedule 9 of the Equality Act, and the EAT ruling confirmed this in the clearest terms.
Read here (be sure to read ensuing comments!)
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
