Canon Jeremy Pemberton, a Church of England (C of E) priest for more than 30 years, had his permission to officiate revoked after he married Laurence Cunnington in April 2014.
He was also denied a licence to officiate in the diocese of Southwell and Nottingham, which left him unable to take up a job offer at the King’s Mill Hospital in Nottinghamshire.
Canon Pemberton brought an employment tribunal against the former acting Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, the Rt Rev Richard Inwood.
The tribunal dismissed his claims of discrimination and harassment and his case was also rejected by the employment appeal tribunal in 2016.
He renewed his fight at London’s
Court of Appeal on Wednesday, where his lawyers argued the earlier rulings should be overturned.
Sean Jones QC, for Canon Pemberton, told the court the bishop’s decisions which barred him from officiating were wrong because the C of E does not have a fixed rule on same-sex marriage among members of the clergy.
He also said C of E clergy members in civil partnerships were allowed to officiate and that those were “effectively indistinguishable” from same-sex marriage.
Canon Jeremy Pemberton (right) and husband Laurence Cunnington at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as the gay priest who was prevented from working as a hospital chaplain after marrying his partner,…
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