Chaplain Sacked Over Gender Sermon Reinstated Seven Years Later But With No Apology From Church

Bernard Randall, the school chaplain who was sacked and blacklisted by the Church of England over a gender-related sermon, has won a seven-year battle to be reinstated, but has received no apology from the church. The Times has the story.

Bernard Randall was reported to terrorism watchdogs and sacked after addressing the subject of identity politics and transgenderism in 2019.

The 53 year-old claimed senior teachers and officials at Trent College in Nottingham unfairly sacked him after he gave a sermon to students claiming the Church of England viewed marriage as being between biological men and women.

Randall said he made the comments after students questioned the school’s then recently implemented policy on sexual orientation diversity.

He has now overturned a church ruling that had prevented him from preaching.

“Seven years have been taken from me for doing my duty as a CofE chaplain in a school with a CofE ethos,” said Randall after the settlement was reached. 

The chaplain added that he had “encouraged pupils to think, to debate, and to love their neighbours whatever they believed. No minister, teacher or chaplain should be punished for upholding Christian teaching in a Christian setting”.

Lawyers for Randall said that as a result of the settlement with church officials, Randall — who is a former Cambridge University college chaplain — was free to preach in church and work in an education setting for the first time in seven years.

The original sanction was imposed after Randall delivered a sermon in the chapel of the Derbyshire college, which his legal team maintained had “encouraged debate and was pastoral and rooted in Anglican belief”. 

His sermon was delivered after the school had invited the external campaign group and charity, Educate and Celebrate, to conduct a training day at the school. 

An employment tribunal hearing in 2023 noted that a representative of the campaign group used the phrase “smash heteronormativity” during that session and it was alleged that it attempted to “embed” so-called queer theory at the school. 

Educate and Celebrate was closed two years ago. 

Lawyers for Randall said that after he delivered his sermon he was “treated like a criminal”, with school officials reporting him to the government’s anti-terrorism Prevent programme without his knowledge. It was also alleged that Randall had been blacklisted by the diocese of Derby as a safeguarding risk.

However, after an independent review, the diocese of London ruled that it could not be established on the balance of probabilities that Randall’s sermon caused harm.

The investigator for the diocese recommended that “the concern or allegation” over Randall “was unsubstantiated and there are no ongoing safeguarding concerns”.

The chaplain’s representatives confirmed that he had completed all mandatory safeguarding training and was eligible for “permission to officiate”. However, they claimed that the Bishop of Derby had done “nothing to help him return to ministry”.

Worth reading in full.

The press release from the Christian Legal Centre has more details about Dr Randall’s ordeal:

Dr Randall’s case began in June 2018 when Trent College invited Educate and Celebrate to deliver staff training.

During the session, staff, including Dr Randall, were encouraged to chant “smash heteronormativity” by its founder, Elly Barnes, who claimed to be a doctor, which was subsequently shown to be just an honorary title.

During this training, which Dr Randall attended, Barnes falsely told staff that “gender identity” was protected under the Equality Act (which it is not), and that her organisation was recognised by Ofsted, which it was not.

Before going defunct, Educate and Celebrate were given access to thousands of schools across the country teaching ‘Queer Theory’, the gender unicorn and telling educators to remove the terms ‘boys and girls’ from the school environment.

As the school chaplain, Dr Randall raised concerns with senior leaders about the accuracy and appropriateness of E&C’s ‘gold standard’ teaching programme being introduced to the school and nursery, particularly in light of the school’s Christian foundation and his pastoral responsibilities.

Despite those concerns, in January 2019, the school adopted an extreme gender identity curriculum across all years, including the nursery, and excluded Dr Randall from involvement even though he had questioned the suitability of the programme.

The decision intensified tensions over whether a CofE school could promote extreme and contested ideological claims while marginalising its chaplain’s attempt to uphold the school’s stated ethos.

Reported to Prevent and safeguarding authorities

In June 2019, after a pupil submitted a question asking why students were being told they “have to accept” gender identity teaching in a Christian school, Dr Randall delivered a chapel sermon entitled Competing ideologies.

The consequences for Dr Randall, however, were devastating.

In a Stalinesque development, without his knowledge, Dr Randall was reported by Trent College to the government’s terrorist watchdog, Prevent, for “religious extremism”.

He was also reported to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) as a potential “safeguarding risk”. Both said he had no case to answer.

In August 2019, following an investigation, Dr Randall received a letter stating that the Headmaster, Bill Penty, had concluded his conduct amounted to gross misconduct and that he would be dismissed.

He appealed, and the dismissal was overturned, but he was issued with a final warning and allowed to return only under stringent management instructions which curtailed his freedom as chaplain and amounted to direct censorship.

By January 2020, Dr Randall had commenced proceedings against Trent College for direct and indirect discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, harassment, victimisation and breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, and later, unfair dismissal.

Later that year, following Covid lockdowns and a period on furlough, the school said it wanted to reduce the chaplaincy role to seven hours per week during term-time only, down from a full-time post.

Dr Randall could not accept the reduced role and was subsequently made redundant.

The litigation widened in April 2021 when Dr Randall amended his claim to include unfair dismissal and victimisation.

Kafkaesque interrogations

The CofE’s safeguarding team at the Derby Diocese became aware of the sermon. One member of staff is recorded as describing the sacking as “a game changer”, and initiated a safeguarding process, even though no complaint or allegation of wrongdoing was ever made.

The safeguarding process led to him being blacklisted from ministry by Bishop Libby Lane’s Diocese of Derby, who refused to give him a ‘Permission to Officiate’ licence after his redundancy.

If losing his job and licence was not enough, Dr Randall then experienced what he describes as “Kafkaesque interrogations” by the CofE’s local safeguarding team, not even being told what safeguarding-related concerns were being investigated.

In July 2021, amid the ongoing Church of England safeguarding process, he was told that he would need to undergo an independent safeguarding assessment by a psychologist. The psychologist chosen specialised in assessing sex offenders.

For declining, Dr Randall was blacklisted from his vocation and pursued a serious complaint of misconduct over this decision.

Justin Welby “plainly wrong”

In July 2022 with all other avenues for justice exhausted, Dr Randall brought a misconduct complaint against Bishop Libby Lane under the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003, including his own safeguarding complaint and alleging that her conduct had been abusive.

In response, Justin Welby, then Archbishop of Canterbury, refused permission for a formal investigation into Dr Randall’s complaint against Bishop Lane and dismissed it.

He also did not refer the case to the National Safeguarding Team, leaving unresolved questions about how the Church had treated a minister whose sermon reflected its own doctrine.

However, a senior Church legal officer for clergy discipline, Gregory Jones KC, subsequently found that the Archbishop had “misunderstood the scope of his powers”, and was “plainly wrong”.

The same investigating officer described the process leading to the blacklisting of Dr Randall as “egregious” and a “gross” error, and could find no evidence to conclude that he was a safeguarding risk.

Nine of Dr Randall’s thirteen allegations were sent back to Bishop Lane for a formal response.

But the process continued to stall. In July 2023, Justin Welby again determined that no further action should be taken against Bishop Lane.

By November 2023, Dr Randall’s complaint was finally passed to the Designated Officer for investigation, prolonging a process which had already left him unable to resume ministry.

Despite repeatedly trying to block the case proceeding, Justin Welby was effectively overruled by the Church’s most senior legal officer, President of Tribunals Dame Sarah Asplin concluded that how Dr Randall’s case had been handled was “highly unsatisfactory” and  that the process should be restarted from the beginning, but refused to recommend disciplinary action against the Bishop of Derby over the failures.

Employment Tribunal ruling and anti-Christian bias

After launching legal action over his dismissal by Trent College, Dr Randall’s case employment case was heard at Nottingham Justice Centre in September 2022, before Employment Judge Victoria Butler and two lay members which included trade unionist, Mr Jed Purkis.

In February 2023, the Employment Tribunal upheld Dr Randall’s dismissal.

In her ruling, Judge Butler said that Dr Randall had “misconceived” who Educate and Celebrate were. Judge Butler had also suggested that Bernard had “taken an extreme view of Educate and Celebrate…” and she repeatedly and falsely stated that the group were recognised by Ofsted.

Unknown to Dr Randall’s legal team at the time, before and after a ruling was made on the case, which found against Dr Randall on every point, Mr Purkis had made a series of anti-Christian and anti-conservative posts on social media.

Purkis stated: “Only atheists should be allowed to run for office”, accompanied by, “Damn right, you won’t catch us killing in the name of our non-god”.

He also said of Christians: “If they’re that f***ing super how come there’s so much shit going on in the world?” and “I need no ‘higher power’ to tell me the right way to treat people and behave…”

Similar Christian teacher case collapses after apparent bias

In March 2024, at the same Nottingham tribunal, Judge Butler and Purkis also began presiding on another similar Christian Legal Centre case, involving Christian teacher “Hannah”.

Hannah was taking legal action after being sacked for raising safeguarding concerns about an 8-year-old “transitioning” under the guidance of Stonewall in a primary school.

During this hearing, Purkis’ anti-Christian posts were discovered, and a recusal application was made by Hannah’s lawyers for “apparent bias”.

In a rare move, Judge Victoria Butler was forced to recuse the whole panel, including herself, and the hearing collapsed.

The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, supported by the senior president of tribunals and the Lord Chancellor, subsequently said that Purkis’s comments amounted to misconduct and he was given a formal rebuke.

This controversy would play a key role in Dr Randall’s appeal.

Educate and Celebrate closes amid scandal

In the meantime, however, as a result of the Butler ruling, Dr Randall was reported by Trent College to the Teaching Regulation Agency and the Disclosure and Barring Service, who both concluded that Dr Randall had no case to answer.

Further vindications followed, with Educate and Celebrate, being plagued by scandal to the point that it was quietly closed by the Charity Commission.

One patron, Stephen Ireland, has been jailed for 24 years for a series of sex offences against children, including the rape of a 12 year-old boy.

Despite all of these vindications, the CofE continued to refuse to reinstate Dr Randall.

Appeal succeeds

In February 2024, Dr Randall’s Employment Appeal Tribunal hearing was postponed pending the outcome of the landmark Kristie Higgs case, which was also supported by the Christian Legal Centre.

On February 12th 2025, the Court of Appeal handed down a landmark ruling in the Higgs’ case, providing important precedent for cases involving Christian freedom in the workplace.

Dr Randall’s appeal then finally began on March 4th 2025 on thirteen grounds, including: alleged bias by the original Butler/Purkis tribunal panel, improper treatment of the theological nature of his sermon, misapplication of human rights protections, procedural unfairness, failure to consider the safeguarding blacklist and Prevent referral, and failure to recognise that his sermon reflected CofE doctrine.

Judge James Tayler subsequently ruled that the original ‘Purkis Butler’ Employment Tribunal judgment was “unsafe” and ordered an urgent retrial.

Having accepted that Purkis was biased despite having argued to the contrary, Trent College was ordered to pay £20,000 in costs.

Following that ruling, a confidential legal settlement was reached between the College and Dr Randall.

Safeguarding conclusion

Dr Randall’s safeguarding blacklisting has also now been overturned in substance.

Following the recommendation for a review, the Diocese of London conducted an ‘independent’ safeguarding review.

From the beginning, however, this process was highly flawed as it should have recommenced from the beginning, but instead began from the premise that there was already a safeguarding concern.

Two years since the review was ordered, the review has found no safeguarding concerns about Dr Randall with no allegations upheld. He has completed all mandatory safeguarding training and is eligible for Permission to Officiate if the Bishop of Derby chooses to grant it.

Despite no concerns being upheld, and successive failures to follow statutory procedures by the safeguarding teams, the Diocese of London’s independent investigator concluded:

The Practice Guidance is there to address ‘safeguarding concerns’ and as such, more constructive cooperation with the process by Dr Randall could have enabled it to be brought it to an earlier conclusion.

His belief that his actions were 100% correct and that he did not see or recognise the potential outcome of this case, shows a failure to fully understand what safeguarding both means and strives to achieve.

Dr Randall will be required to undertake Safeguarding Training prior to any PtO is granted and this may assist him in his understanding and awareness.

Dr Randall’s legal team believe that such a statement means that the CofE’s process continues to punish him for maintaining that he did nothing wrong by preaching a sermon rooted in Church of England doctrine, and he could be put through the same process again if he were to preach a similar sermon in line with the Church’s own teaching.

There has been no apology for the remarkable fact that the Church took nearly seven years to reach its conclusion, whereas the secular LADO took just one day to determine that it was not a safeguarding matter but rather an “issue regarding the subject’s beliefs which ran contrary to his employers [Trent College].” The Church of England’s bishops declared in 2021 that Dr Randall’s sermon contained “nothing… outside the doctrine and teaching of the Church of England”, making the contrast in treatment even more extraordinary.

The independent investigator also said: “It is a matter for the Designated Safeguarding Lead for the Diocese of Derby as to what they feel is an appropriate role for Dr Randall to be considered for. He may choose to apply for a licence, for Permission to Officiate (PtO) or may apply for another role within a school or another educational facility.”

It now remains to be seen how the Derby Diocese and Bishop of Derby will actively help and support Dr Randall back into full time ministry within the CofE.

The Bishop of Derby must surely now resign and the officers and members of staff responsible for hounding Dr Randall be sacked. But we know this won’t happen, of course. Offend the woke and you’re cancelled; put an innocent man through seven years of hell and face no consequence at all.