Canon threatens legal action over job withdrawal

Jeremy Pemberton, a canon and Church of England hospital chaplain, is seeking legal advice after he had the offer of another chaplaincy job withdrawn because his bishop has refused him a licence, writes Ruth Gledhill.

Canon Pemberton, who ­married his same-sex partner ­earlier this year, will continue working as a chaplain at an NHS trust in Lincolnshire. He had hoped to move to a new job in Nottinghamshire, nearer his home. “I am taking legal advice,” Canon Pemberton told The Tablet. “There will be something. I am very, very disappointed. I wanted that job. That’s why I applied for it. I am good enough for the job. That’s why I was offered it. I am incredibly disappointed that it is not going to come my way.” Although NHS chaplains are funded by the NHS, a chaplain needs a licence from the local diocese. The acting bishop for Southwell and Nottingham, Richard Inwood, said in July: “the House of Bishops said that getting married to someone of the same sex was clearly at variance with the teaching of the Church of England … In view of this, and having spoken to the Reverend Jeremy Pemberton, his permission to officiate in the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham was revoked.”