British newspaper readers were given a window into the workings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church last April in Britain through a much-publicized case claiming race and sex discrimination and unfair dismissal. Valerie Eccles, a black female employed as an information technology (IT) technician, was awarded 77,000 pounds (nearly a million dollars US), called a "record compensation" for such a case in Britain. Her attorney, Lawrence Davies, issued a press report saying, "The award reflects the appalling and despotic treatment Mrs. Eccles was subjected. The church should be ashamed." Her charges ranged from rude speech and behavior to exclusion from trips to Iceland and Greece. The most devastating charge was that she had been summarily dismissed for gross misconduct.

People close to the scene have a different view of the situation, although the Trans-European Division of the church accepted the final decision of the court and paid the award. They point out that the principal documents used in the court were thousands of pages of a diary kept minutely by Ms. Eccles for the thirteen years she worked for the church, first as a secretary and then later as an IT staff member. The "gross misconduct" they charged her with was her conducting of an "outside" business using her office quarters in the denomination's building. They say that when Ms. Eccles began to voice a complaint they offered to settle out of court, but she chose to call an attorney and take it to trial. The attorney's initial demand of 5 million pounds, based on a percentage of the church's income, was much reduced as many of her charges were discounted. The presiding judge in the case had taken particular exception to the church's recommendation that its members not resort to civil courts, but try to settle grievances in a biblical fashon. He suggested that the church was enslaving its members.