Gay minister's case dismissed by top court

Ecclesia de Lange‚ the Methodist minister suspended and later discontinued as minister for her plan to marry her same-sex partner‚ failed in her appeal to the Constitutional Court to set aside her dismissal. De Lange announced before her congregation in 2009 that she intended to marry her live-in‚ same-sex partner. After this announcement‚ the church informed her that her announcement had breached the church policy which only recognised heterosexual marriages, notes a TimesLIVE report. She was then suspended and discontinued as minister in 2010. In a unanimous judgment yesterday‚ Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke said it was not in the interests of justice to hear De Lange's appeal because there were no reasonable prospects of success. He said the arbitration panel would be the appropriate forum to examine the church’s application of its rule against same-sex marriages for ministers. Moseneke said De Lange had not raised her claim of unfair discrimination in the High Court and she was not free to raise it for the first time on appeal.