Jeremy Pemberton is Disciplined

In April, I said that Church of England Canon Jeremy Pemberton must be disciplined for entering a gay “marriage.”  I will not repeat my reasons for being so adamant; I laid them out then.

I do want to give the Church of England and Bishop Richard Inwood credit for having the backbone to indeed discipline Pemberton:

The first clergyman to enter into a gay marriage in defiance of the Church of England has been ‘sacked’ by his bishop.

Sources said Canon Jeremy Pemberton, who married Laurence Cunnington in April, is to have his rights to operate as a priest revoked.

He will no longer be able to conduct services in the diocese, though he remains employed by the NHS as a hospital chaplain.

The decision by the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham Richard Inwood to remove the Canon’s ‘Permission to Officiate’ will also make it very difficult for him to function as a priest anywhere else in the Church of England.

Church of England bishops are thought to lack backbones, but it turned out not to be so in this case. 

Yes, I am mildly surprised.