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The civil declaration of our love and devotion
• THERE seems no logic or common sense being applied to the Lillian Ladele case.
My partner and I were one of the first couples to register our civil partnership at Islington. We did so for legal and financial reasons so that our partnership could be recognised by hospitals, employers, banks, landlords etcetera. This year we celebrate 60 years together and I venture to suggest that we have led more worthwhile lives than many couples Ms Ladele would happily marry and who subsequently divorce and neglect their children.
Between us we have devoted much of our lives to social causes including my years as a lay magistrate. Of course, Ms Ladele should be allowed to refuse to “marry”' gay couples in a place of worship.
But the whole system of registering civil partnerships gives same sex and opposite sex couples the opportunity to register their love and devotion in a civil and not religious environment.
Let us hope that Islington Council’s appeal will be successful simply on the basis of the definition of “civil” in any dictionary as “of ordinary citizens or ordinary community life as distinguished from the military or ecclesiastical”.
DR ANTHONY FIELD
Barbican, EC2
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