In late October, Lillian Ladele, the Christian registrar whose court battle to protect freedom of conscience became the UK’s leading case on the issue, died at home of natural causes aged 54.
Miss Ladele faced a long-running legal battle which went all the way to the European Court of Human Rights following the introduction of civil partnerships.
Miss Ladele wrote to her employer in 2006 asking for a reasonable accommodation of her religious objection to same sex civil partnerships. Islington accepted that it had more than enough registrars to provide a civil partnership service to the public without requiring Miss Ladele’s involvement.
But managers at the council refused her request, and demanded that she carry out civil partnership registrations against her will.
Faithful Christian
Her solicitor Mark Jones said: ‘Lillian was a strong woman and a faithful Christian. She prayed for those who said hurtful things about her and tried to reflect the love of Christ to everyone she dealt with. When she gave evidence to the employment tribunal, she spoke of herself as a sinner saved by grace, and shared the gospel from the witness stand. It was a privilege to be her lawyer but it was an even greater privilege to be her brother in Christ.’
Lillian’s family released a statement saying: ‘She honoured and worshipped Jesus Christ in her life and her family are comforted in their grief knowing that her name was written in the book of life and that she is now with her resurrected Lord and Saviour.’
Miss Ladele comprehensively won her case at an employment tribunal in 2008, but the decision was overturned on appeal. Although subsequent courts accepted that she had been mistreated by her employers, they ruled against Lillian, before the case went to Europe. In January 2013, the European Court of Human Rights upheld that ruling, and she was denied permission to appeal to the Grand Chamber.
