Call for prayer after Christian registrar loses discrimination appeal

The head of The Christian Institute is urging Christians to pray for religious freedom in Britain after the Supreme Court rejected the appeal application of a Christian registrar disciplined because of her opposition to civil partnerships.

The court refused to grant Lillian Ladele permission to challenge a previous ruling, which found she had not been discriminated against by Islington Council in north London when it had disciplined her for refusing to conduct same-sex civil partnership registrations.

Ms Ladele, who worked as a registrar for the council for 16 years, refused to conduct the ceremonies for same-sex couples because she felt it went against her “religious conscience”.

An Employment Tribunal ruled that Islington Council had discriminated against Ms Ladele, but the ruling was overturned by the Appeal Court last December after judges concluded that it was Ms Ladele who had broken the law by refusing to serve someone because of their sexuality, illegal under Labour’s 2007 Sexual Orientation Regulations.

Ms Ladele said she was “disappointed” by the ruling and that her rights had been “trampled by another set of rights”. She is now considering whether to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Colin Hart, director of The Christian Institute, which has backed Ms Ladele’s legal campaign, said her case demonstrated how changes to the law had become “coercive”.

“When the civil partnership legislation was passed, the public was told that it was simply to permit homosexual couples to enter into a legal union - it wouldn't affect anyone else. But it quickly became coercive,” he said.

Mr Hart expressed concern that last week’s vote in the House of Lords to allow churches to hold civil partnership ceremonies on a voluntary basis could also become coercive.

“We should be rightly concerned by the so-called 'permissive' change allowing churches to hold civil partnership registrations 'if they want to',” he said.

“Many experienced observers fear that this seemingly permissive move might become coercive within a number of years. Clergy could be threatened with legal action.

“Even if this was ultimately unsuccessful there would be considerable expense and stress in mounting a defence.”

He called upon Christians to pray that the Government would block plans to allow churches to hold civil partnership registrations and that the new Government would “do more to protect gospel freedom”.