The chairman of the House of Clergy in the diocese of Worcester, Canon Stuart Currie, has welcomed a judgment by the Birmingham employment tribunal that clergy are office-holders rather than employees. The Employment Judge, Alan McCarry, made the ruling after a claim brought by the former Rector of Teme Valley South, near Tenbury Wells, the […]
Category: Church Times
Clergy can join new association
The country’s largest union, Unite, announced the launch of the Church of England Clergy Association (CECA) on Monday. Despite four years of talks with the House of Clergy, however, it has received only a cautious welcome. In 2008, the General Synod’s House of Clergy established a working group to explore the establishment of a body […]
The Church of England General Synod
The General Synod of the Church of England met in London, at Church House, Westminster, from the 6th to the 9th February. I was there alongside CT assistant editor Glyn Paflin and staff and freelance writers Ed Thornton, Madeleine Davies and Margaret Duggan. Together we produced a 12-page special report for the General Synod Digest, a […]
Dr Williams issues warning on Nigeria
Nigeria is “at risk of disintegration” after the recent attacks on Christians, the Archbishop of Canterbury said this week. Dr Williams, speaking in an emergency debate in the General Synod on Wednesday, said that the situation in Nigeria was “not a few issues of interfaith conflict, but the threatened disintegration of a society”. Church Times
Council and councillor join battle in court over prayers
The practice of saying prayers at the start of council meetings is akin to councillors’ reading pornographic or racist material, lawyers for the National Secular Society (NSS) told the High Court last Friday. The NSS and the former Bideford town councillor Clive Bone brought judicial-review proceedings against Bideford Town Council after councillors there twice rejected […]
Judge must decide on priests’ employment status
A former rector, the Revd Mark Sharpe, will have to wait up to three months before he finds out whether he can bring a case of constructive dismissal against the Bishop and diocese of Worcester. The chairman of an employment tribunal, A. J. McCarry, told Mr Sharpe at the end of a five-day preliminary hearing […]
QC: ‘Spirit of Trollope is alive’
A leading ecclesiastical lawyer has suggested that “the spirit of Trollope is alive and well in the Church of England.” Geoffrey Tattersall QC made the admission on the second day of a week-long preliminary hearing at an employment tribunal in Birmingham. The tribunal, chaired by A. J. McCarry, is being asked to decide whether the […]