School chaplain sacked and reported to terrorist watchdog for identity politics sermon begins appeal

Feb 21, 2024 by Jill

by Frederick Attenborough, Free Speech Union:

A former school chaplain who was sacked, reported to the national teaching regulator, the Disclosure and Barring Service, and the government’s counter-terrorism programme Prevent for the ‘crime’ of preaching a sermon on identity politics, will today (Tuesday, February 20th) begin his appeal at the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, the ordained Church of England (CofE) minister Rev. Dr Bernard Randall, originally took legal action against Trent College in Derbyshire following his dismissal for a sermon he gave in 2019 on the CofE’s own teaching on marriage. In a CofE chapel. In a school with a CofE ethos.

The sermon, which you can read here, was a model of fair-mindedness, reminding the pupils that no-one has a monopoly on moral truth, whether it’s traditional Christians or LGBT activists, and stressing how important it is to approach ethical disagreements with humility, tolerance and courtesy.

The chaplain said he devised the sermon after Educate & Celebrate (E&C), a third-party inclusivity training provider that encourages toddlers to question their gender and advises primary school pupils on “how to break the binary and be gender inclusive”, worked with the school to ensure LGBTQ issues received appropriate representation in policies and codes of conduct.

Dr Barnard was particularly concerned by an E&C presentation which was attended by teachers, at which they were exhorted to shout the slogan “smash heteronormativity”. Willingly or otherwise, they did so.

Read here

Watch: ‘I lost my job at the school. Justin Welby has done nothing to help me!’ Former Chaplain, Dr Bernard Randall, on being reported to safeguarding and the terror watchdog for his sermon on gender. With Patrick Christys, GB News

Also with Patrick Christys, GB News: Conservative MP, James Daly, on the views and actions of the Archbishop of Canterbury.