Jeremy Pemberton

Jeremy Charles Baring Pemberton (born 1956 ) is a British Anglican priest who was the first priest in the Church of England to enter into a same-sex marriage when he married another man in 2014. As same-sex marriages are not accepted by the church (its canon law defines marriage as between one man and one woman), he was denied a job as a chaplain for the National Health Service by John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York. Before then, he had been an Anglican priest for 33 years.

He sued the church on employment discrimination grounds. However, a tribunal upheld his dismissal, saying that being a Church of England chaplain meant that Pemberton had to uphold that church's views on marriage. The tribunal also said that the Equality Act in England and Wales allowed for religious exemptions to laws that protect people from being fired because of their sexual orientation. The dismissal was upheld on appeal by the Court of Appeal in 2018.

Early life and ordained ministry Pemberton was born in 1956. He studied at Merton College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1977: as per tradition, his BA was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Oxon) degree. From 1978 to 1981, he trained for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, an evangelical Anglican theological college. He also studied theology at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, graduating with a further BA in 1980.

Marriage

Background The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination based on protected characteristics in the act, including sexual orientation. However, the Church of England and other religious groups that do not agree with same-sex relationships are allowed to not employ gay people if they are sexually active or in civil partnerships.

In April 2014, Pemberton married his partner Laurence Cunnington. Pemberton met Cunnington on a support website for gay fathers in 2008 and both had been previously married to women for several decades. Pemberton and his former wife have five adult children. The marriage occurred despite an official ban on same-sex marriages from the Church of England's House of Bishops in February 2014, who instead allowed civil partnerships between members of the same gender, within a celibate relationship. The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 meant that religious institutions which do not agree with same-sex marriage—such as the Church of England, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman in its canon law—did not have to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies. These exemptions came following extensive lobbying by conservative Anglicans.

In response, Pemberton threatened legal action against the church. This judgement was criticised by the LGBT rights activists Peter Tatchell, Christina Beardsley and Davis Mac-Iyalla, and the LGBT rights charity Stonewall.

Pemberton appealed the decision, but the Employment Appeal Tribunal dismissed his appeal in 2016. The Court of Appeal also dismissed his case in 2018.

Precisely five years after his marriage, Equal, the Campaign for Equal Marriage in the Church of England, was founded to end bans on same-sex marriages in churches and to allow clergy to marry people of the same sex.