by Julian Mann, Christian Today
The Church of England’s treatment of former school chaplain, Rev Dr Bernard Randall, deserves to be described as evil.
The Christian Legal Centre is rightly calling for Dr Randall to be restored to ministry after statutory authorities found that he did not pose a safeguarding risk.
But the Church of England should have backed him in 2019 over the sermon that led to him losing his job at Trent College, an independent school in Nottinghamshire with a long Anglican tradition.
Incredibly, the school referred Dr Randall to the government’s anti-terrorism programme, Prevent, for preaching a sermon to students in which he said they did not have to agree with LGBT ideology.
Prevent, as well as the local authority designated officer on safeguarding (LADO), the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA), and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), all decided there was no need for action against him. The Church, however, has left him without a bishop’s licence to minister since he was made redundant by the school in 2020.