Wycliffe Hall admits lecturer's unfair dismissal

Leading theological seminary Wycliffe Hall admitted that it broke employment legislation when it sacked senior lecturer Dr Elaine Storkey in November last year.

In a Pre-Hearing Review on Monday, Wycliffe Hall accepted that Dr Storkey "had been unfairly" dismissed and that the college had failed to go through the statutory procedures.

Dr Storkey had been a lecturer at Wycliffe Hall for four years when she was dismissed last November. Her case against the Trustees included complaints that she had been unfairly dismissed and had been discriminated on religious grounds because of her adherence to a more liberal evangelicalism than the college's more conservative evangelical leadership.

The college stressed, however, that her dismissal was not due to her religious beliefs.

"We strongly refute any allegation that Elaine's dismissal from Wycliffe was in any way connected with her religious beliefs," the college said in a statement on Tuesday. "At Wycliffe Hall, our key priority is to equip men and women for modern ministry and this happens in an environment that encourages wide discussion and debate, reflective of the broad range of thinking within the Church as a whole."

The college said it hoped that a "full and amicable settlement" could be reached. Dr Storkey was later awarded £20,000 by the employment tribunal for her unfair dismissal.

She is continuing to sue the college's president the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, for religious discrimination, alleging she was the "wrong kind of Christian".

The case has been adjourned until June.