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Ladele and justice’s arc
• THE arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Nineteenth-century Unitarian minister Theodore Parker coined these words of faith in the face of a struggle for the abolition of slavery that often seemed hopeless.
Martin Luther King later adopted them in his own struggle to further the cause of justice. Indeed, the arc sometimes seems so terribly gradual that we imagine that full justice will never arrive. The important thing to remember though is that it is our hands and our words that help to shape that long curve – no matter how slightly – towards the dreamed-of day when all will be treated with equity and understanding.
On Wednesday at 10.30am, another small step in that long process takes place. A tribunal will hear Islington Council’s appeal of an employment tribunal ruling in favour of Lillian Ladele. Ms Ladele is the Islington registrar who refused to register civil partnerships on the grounds that her religious beliefs opposed homosexuality. If the appeal is successful, an important step will have been taken to block legalised discrimination against same-sex couples. I dearly hope that this will be the outcome and that we can avoid a regrettable step backwards.
Let us remember though that a successful appeal will not bring us all the way to equality. The Civil Partnership Act, while a great step forward for the rights of same-sex couples, bans the presence of religion in civil partnership registrations. This inherent inequality of the law is unjust and unfair. It implies an unacceptability of same-sex relationships in the sight of the holy.
My congregation, the Newington Green and Islington Unitarians, announced in April we will not participate in this inequity and thus will not participate in legal weddings until this unjust situation has changed. We have placed our hands on the arc of the moral universe and are pushing with all our might.
Next week, as an appeal is heard regarding whether to allow discrimination by council employees, I hope we can all keep the cause of justice in our thoughts or prayers and do our part to bend the arc towards justice.
Andrew Pakula
Newington Green and Islington Unitarians
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