The Church of England and the chaplain who dared to speak the truth
by Susie Leafe, Christian Today:
Sometimes it seems that ‘anything goes’ in the Church of England.
Do you want a drag queen to perform for children in a church to teach them about inclusion? That’s fine – it’s just like a pantomime.
Do you want to install a giant ‘Gaia’ in most of the cathedrals in the country? That’s fine – we can gloss over the reference to the Greek goddess, the ancestral mother of all life, who personified the earth.
But every now and then the Church says, “No!”
The Rev Bernard Randall is one such case. He was disciplined in his former job as a school chaplain for preaching a sermon that encouraged “a reasoned debate between beliefs”, but gave permission for students to question “the ideologies of LGBTI activists”. He was later made redundant.
So, he turned to the Church of England, seeking Permission to Officiate at his local church. But the Bishop of Derby apparently refused, on the basis that he might be a safeguarding risk to those who attend a service he is leading or come under his influence.
In a Kafkaesque move, the Bishop of Derby is now reported to be demanding that he undergoes an Independent Safeguarding Assessment before she allows him to preach or preside at the Eucharist in the Diocese of Derby. If this is true, then she has in effect prevented him from serving his community or applying for any role in the Church of England.
So, why would he need to undergo such an assessment?
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