Fury as ‘pointless’ Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby turns his back on chaplain

May 16, 2021 by

By Mark Hookham and Brendan Carlin, Mail on Sunday:

The Archbishop of Canterbury was last night lambasted for refusing to support a chaplain who was reported to an anti-terrorism programme after he questioned his school’s new LGBT policies.

Church of England leaders were urged to intervene after this newspaper revealed how independent Trent College near Nottingham secretly reported Reverend Dr Bernard Randall to the Prevent programme, which normally identifies those at risk of being radicalised.

Dr Randall, 48, had delivered a sermon in which he told pupils they were allowed to disagree with the school’s new LGBT policies, particularly if they felt they ran contrary to the Church’s principles.

The school decided Dr Randall’s sermon was ‘harmful to LGBT’ students and referred him to Prevent, although a police probe ruled the chaplain posed ‘no counter-terrorism risk, or risk of radicalisation’.

The Christian Legal Centre, which has taken up Dr Randall’s case, appealed for Archbishop Justin Welby, along with the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, and the Bishop of Derby, Libby Lane, to publicly support Dr Randall.

‘Will you use your platform to defend Dr Randall and freedom of belief and religion in our schools,’ centre chief executive Andrea Williams asked in a letter.

But all three senior figures declined to give Dr Randall their backing.

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