The move follows a High Court ruling upholding a decision by England’s Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages to refuse to register a Scientology chapel in the UK capital for weddings.

Hollywood adherents

Scientology – which boasts several high profile adherents, including Hollywood stars Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley – is not recognised as a religion in the UK, France and Germany, although it is afforded that status in the US, Australia and several continental European jurisdictions.
Paul Hewitt, a contentious trust and succession partner at London-based international law firm Withers, confirmed his client – 24-year-old Louisa Hodkin, who is engaged to fellow Scientologist Alessandro Calcioli – was granted leave to leap-frog the Court of Appeal and take the case direct to England’s highest court. ‘The timetable depends on the court’s caseload,’ he said, ‘but we hope there will not be too great a delay given Louisa has already been waiting more than three years to be married.’

Definition of worship

In yesterday’s High Court ruling, Mr Justice Ouseley ruled he was bound by a 1970 Appeal Court judgment, which dictated that a building can only be registered to conduct religious marriages if it is also registered as a place of meeting for religious worship under legislation dating back to 1855.
But in rejecting Ms Hodkin’s application, the judge suggested that the 40-year precedent might be susceptible to review. ‘I regard the definition of worship [in the earlier judgment] as being problematic,’ said the judge in his ruling. ‘It may be that now a different approach to “religious worship” from that ... would and should be adopted.’ He went on to say that he ‘would have concluded that Scientologists worship’, but for the conclusion of the Court of Appeal in the 1970 case.
Commenting on the ruling, Mr Hewitt said: ‘The judge said that Scientology is a religion, and our case is that Louisa ought therefore to be able to have a religious marriage.’

Anomalous approach

Following the hearing, Ms Hodkin’s lawyers flagged up a range of anomalies in the UK’s approach to Scientology. In 2007, the General Register Office in Scotland approved a Scientologist to conduct marriage ceremonies in that jurisdiction as a religious minister.
Likewise, Mr Hewitt confirmed a report in The Times newspaper pointing out that Britain’s Ministry of Defence recognises Scientology as a religion in the Royal Navy, and the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales treats Scientology as a religion for the purposes of the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006.
Scientology was founded in the early 1950s by US writer and author L Ron Hubbard.