A woman who wanted to marry in a Church of Scientology chapel has won a legal battle in the UK's Supreme Court.
Scientologist Louisa Hodkin took her fight to the court after a High Court judge ruled that services run by Scientologists were not "acts of worship".
Five Supreme Court justices analysed the case at a hearing in London in July and ruled in her favour today, announcing that the Scientology church was a "place of meeting for religious worship".
Miss Hodkin wants to marry fiance Alessandro Calcioli in a Church of Scientology in central London.
She took legal action after the registrar general of births, deaths and marriages refused to register the London Church Chapel for the solemnisation of marriages under the 1855 Places of Worship Registration Act - because it was not a place for "religious worship".
Supreme Court justices said religion should not be confined to faiths involving a "supreme deity".
They unanimously allowed Miss Hodkin's appeal against the High Court ruling.
Miss Hodkin said she hope to get married to Mr Calcioli in the next few months.
She: "I am really excited. I'm really glad we are finally being treated equally and can now get married in our church."
Mr Calcioli added: "I think the court's definition of religion is excellent. I think it's what most people today would understand 'religion' to be."
But local government minister Brandon Lewis said his department would now take legal advice following the ruling over concerns about religious exemption from business rates for Scientology premises.
He said: "Hard-pressed taxpayers will wonder why Scientology premises should now be given tax cuts when local firms have to pay their fair share."
In 1970 the Church of Scientology launched a similar case.
Then the Court of Appeal ruled that Scientology did not involve religious worship because there was no "veneration of God or of a Supreme Being".
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