Humanist weddings (lack of) again

The Guardian reports that two couples intend to sue the Government over the failure to make provision for humanist wedding ceremonies in England and Wales. Regular readers will recall R (Harrison & Ors) v Secretary of State for Justice [2020] EWHC 2096 (Admin), in which the claimants argued that the fact that legal recognition of religious wedding ceremonies under English law did not extend to weddings carried out in accordance with their humanist beliefs discriminated against them unjustifiably and breached their Convention rights under Article 9 ECHR. Though Eady J agreed that the facts of the case fell within the ambit of Article 9, that there was a difference in treatment in respect of Article 9 between the claimants and others put forward for comparison, and that the difference was on a prescribed ground under Article 14 ECHR, she nevertheless dismissed the claim on the grounds that the then Government was seeking to address differences in treatment as part of a wholesale reform of weddings law, noting at [129] that “… the on-going review, has – at this time – established that a fair balance has been struck between the individual rights of the Claimants and wider community interests”.

But that was five years ago, and the Law Commission published its final report on the reform of weddings law in England & Wales in July 2022. We’ll see.

Settlement in a religious discrimination claim 

Jonathan Kerr, who describes himself as a “practising Judaeo-Christian”, observes the Sabbath from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset and does not work for an hour before or after it. He sued Pandox Belfast Limited, aka Hilton Belfast, after he lost a job offer as a night porter because of his observance of the Sabbath. He claimed that he had been open about his religious observance from the outset, had sought clarification regarding shift patterns and had stated in writing that he would be unable to work from 3 pm on a Friday to 11 pm on a Saturday. He received an offer of employment and signed a contract that included an additional letter from human resources confirming that he was unable to work from sunset on Friday to sunset on a Saturday – but the offer was revoked three days before he was due to work his first shift.

The company settled his claim for £10,000 without admitting liability; however, according to the report it also affirmed its commitment to the principle of equality and opportunity and agreed to liaise with the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland to review its equal opportunities policies, practices and procedures to ensure that they conform with the requirements of the Fair Employment and Treatment (NI) Order 1998. [With thanks to Irish Legal News.]

“Net zero” in the Church of England

Following a Letter to the Editor last year, on 12 April 2025 the Daily Telegraph published the article Net zero ‘is destroying the Church of England’. This describes the Telegraph investigation that cites a number of examples of mainly rural churches which have experienced significant periods without heating as a consequence of the decision of General Synod on February 2022; the situation was anticipated by Michael Roberts in his highly critical piece on the possible impacts of Synod’s decision. 

With regard to the underpinning legislation Faculty Jurisdiction (Amendment) Rules 2022 which came into force on 1 July 2022, our analysis of 21 consistory court determinations under the new regulations in comparison with 23 prior judgments is posted in “Net zero”, church heating, and the consistory courts – V, (4 April 2025). Under the new regime, faculties were granted for the installation of four air source heat pumps, five with electrical heating, although the majority of eight were still based upon gas fired heating. 

The “Net Zero Carbon 2030: Impact Report“ (2024) now acknowledges that “The Church of England’s contribution to climate change is small compared to the footprint of the UK and then globally”; the timescale for achieving this target, 2030, is substantially shorter than national and global targets of 2050. It is worth noting that the total emissions of the Church of England constitute less than 0.05% of those of the United Kingdom, which themselves are one hundred times smaller in global terms. Furthermore, places of worship – churches, church halls and cathedrals – account for under 30% of the Church’s total GHG emissions. “Small” indeed. 

Illumination of church towers

Further to last week’s round-up, we posted a follow-up, Faculty & planning requirements: illumination of churches, which examined the earlier cases of  Re All Saints Chelsworth [2024] ECC SEI 4,  Re St George Kidderminster [2019] ECC Wor 4 and others. In view of the coverage of judgments on the illumination of churches, we have added a separate title, External Lighting, to our General Index. Many of the considerations of advertisements under the Town & Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 2007 are applicable to other aspects of external signage on and around church buildings, as reviewed in an earlier post. 

And finally…

Wealands Bell observed, “I see some liturgists insisting that the new Easter fire must not be too small to be seen, or to communicate a sense of the destruction of the past; or too large, so as to dwarf the Paschal candle. Would Goldilocks care to give us the dimensions of the perfect blaze?“.