Elaine Storkey to sue Wycliffe Hall, Bishop of Liverpool

Ed: Despite the confused terminology, the story is clear enough.

A BBC Radio 4 contributor is suing one of the Church of England’s most distinguished training colleges for religious discrimination, claiming that she was bullied out of her job.

Dr Elaine Storkey, who regularly features in the Today programme’s “Thought for the Day” slot, was dismissed from her post at Wycliffe Hall, part of Oxford University, last year.

She claims that conditions there worsened after the appointment of a new principal, Dr Richard Turnbull, and that she was the victim of a battle at the hall between two different strands of Christian evangelism. Dr Storkey, a prominent theologian and the president of the global poverty charity Tearfund, accepted a settlement of up to £20,000 from her former employer yesterday after Wycliffe Hall admitted that her dismissal had been unfair.

She will now seek a ruling of religious discrimination against the Right Rev James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, who is chairman of the hall’s trustees.

After an employment tribunal prehearing in Reading, Dr Storkey said she was pleased that the issue of her unfair dismissal had been resolved.

Robin Lewis, sitting as chairman of the prehearing review, estimated that the award she has won could amount to as much as £20,000.

However, Dr Storkey is continuing to press her claim that she was the victim of religious discrimination at Wycliffe Hall. At a full hearing, which is now scheduled for June, her lawyer will argue that Dr Storkey’s evangelical stance constitutes a religion that is distinct from other evangelists. Read more
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