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Tag: Jeremy Pemberton

Jeremy Pemberton was the first gay priest to marry his partner. He was a priest for the Church of England at the time.

  • First gay priest to marry, is to sue Church of England

    A Priest who married his partner is planning to sue the Church of England after being blocked from new position.

    In April 2014, Canon Jeremy Pemberton defied the Church of England’s ban on same-sex marriage to become the first priest to marry his long-term, same-sex partner Laurence Cunnington. It has been revealed that he plans to take the Church to an employment tribunal, after he was blocked from taking a new job as a Chaplain and bereavement manager with the NHS.

    Pemberton was blocked from the new job by acting Bishop for Southwell and Nottingham, the Right Reverend Richard Inwood, who wrote to the Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to explain that he would not be giving Pemberton a new licence, BBC News reported.

    Speaking to the BBC, Pemberton said, “I feel I have been left with little choice, having found myself being punished and discriminated against simply for exercising my right to marry,” he said.

    A spokesperson for the Archbishops’ Council said it would not comment on individual decisions made by diocese.

  • Gay Church of England priest marries his partner

    A gay Church of England Priest has become the first clergyman to marry his boyfriend.

    Canon Jeremy Pemberton has defied the Church of England’s ban on same-sex marriage to become the first priest to marry his long-term, same-sex partner Laurence Cunnington. The couple wed on Saturday afternoon, the Telegraph has reported.

    The law in the UK that allows same-sex marriage came into force on the 29th March. However some religious organisations are forced by law to not be able to conduct same-sex marriages, the Church of England was one of them.

    The couple did not marry within a C of E Church.

    The Church, earlier this year, decided to ban gay clergy from marrying. The decision means that Priests who marry their same-sex partners could face disciplinary actions.

    Speaking in his blog over at The Telegraph Damian Thompson suggested that the punishment for Mr Pemberton’s marriage could be:

    ‘the withdrawal of his licence to officiate at services (he doesn’t have a parish). Technically he could be defrocked, but that would involve a messy legal process…’