School chaplain the Church of England is trying to cancel again... six years after he said pupils needn't accept LGBT ideology

Daily Mail​

26-07-2025

Everyone who knows the Reverend Dr Bernard Randall attests to his intellectual vigour, kindness, tolerance and patience – qualities the Anglican church would no doubt prefer all its clerics possessed, though by no means all do.
With the Church of England facing abuse scandal upon abuse scandal, spend an hour in the company of the Oxford graduate and former Cambridge University director of theology and it's hard not to conclude he is the kind of man the beleaguered institution needs now more than ever.
But for the past six years, Dr Randall, 52, has been on a Church of England blacklist, a casualty of the culture wars – a victim, as he sees it, of a grave injustice and 'a perfect storm of failings'.
As it stands, were he to try to preach at a CofE church, he could face legal sanction. His crime? As The Mail On Sunday exclusively revealed in 2021, Dr Randall, school chaplain at Trent College in Derbyshire, simply gave a sermon to pupils, telling children they did not have to accept LGBT ideology – upholding, he says, the Church's own teachings on marriage.
Bizarrely, the independent school, which has a long Anglican tradition, secretly referred Dr Randall to the Government's anti-radicalisation programme Prevent following the 2019 sermon – and later sacked him. Less bizarrely, Prevent saw no reason to take any action against him. Nor did several other official bodies which later considered his case.
Six years on, Dr Randall explains what it is like to remain a pariah: 'When I first lost my job, things were very hard, and we were making a lot of use of supermarket surplus food given out free.
'After the story broke in the MoS, we were extremely grateful for the kindness of some strangers, and a couple of charitable grants.
'I got part-time work with an adult education provider. So we're OK, but we've definitely had to tighten our belts. I had to have a tooth extracted because I couldn't afford a crown. And I'm very worried about when our mortgage is due for renewal – but then so are lots of people.'
What is apparent is that this once confident, much respected clergyman is now in despair, bewildered and broken by what he and many others consider a betrayal.
If Dr Randall had failed, say, to tell police about abuse allegations – as former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby failed to do – his blacklisting, say supporters, might be understandable. Just as it would if, like the man now leading the Church, Archbishop Stephen Cottrell, he had turned a blind eye to the case of a vicar accused of grooming teenage girls. Dr Randall remains, in the eyes of the Church, a safeguarding risk – someone who might cause 'spiritual and emotional harm'.
He calls this perverse, accusing the Church of desperately trying to maintain the 'appearance of being progressive'. He says the Church has become 'a corporate machine, more concerned with appearances and tick-boxing than showing basic Christian virtues'.
As chaplain, he told pupils that 'you should no more be told you have to accept LGBT ideology than you should be told you must be in favour of Brexit, or must be Muslim'. He was, in part, reacting to campaign group Educate & Celebrate, invited by the school to teach staff to 'embed gender, gender identity and sexual orientation into the fabric' of what they do.
After falling into a bitter dispute with the school's bosses, he was sacked, then reinstated, only to be made redundant during Covid.
Despite being cleared of wrongdoing, Dr Randall, who is married with a daughter, was unable to get another job in the Church.
The Right Reverend Libby Lane, the Bishop of Derby – the Church's first female bishop – refused to grant him a licence or permission to officiate because her safeguarding team decided he could pose a risk of harm to children. It raised concerns about how Dr Randall 'would speak to and support someone who came to him if they were struggling with their sexuality'.
For what it's worth, Dr Randall believes the Church is absolutely right to be more relaxed about gay people, describing the vitriol they once faced as 'abhorrent'.
He complained that the proceedings were flawed and Bishop Lane 'discriminated against me on the grounds of my orthodox beliefs on gender and sexual orientation'.
But Archbishop Welby refused to allow Dr Randall to bring a misconduct case against Bishop Lane, despite being told by Gregory Jones KC the decision was 'plainly wrong'. Mr Jones, reviewing the case on behalf of the clergy discipline tribunal, said Archbishop Welby had 'misunderstood the scope of his powers', adding that the Church's 'error' was 'gross'.
The tribunal ruled that while there were 'serious errors', Bishop Lane personally did not have a case to answer. But it was decided that the Church 'should look at this matter again and that it might well be appropriate' for an independent team to start from scratch.
And so, after waiting more than a year, Dr Randall found himself at a preliminary meeting last month with CofE safeguarding adviser Lee Elliot and Bishop of Repton, Rt Revd Malcolm Macnaughton, the Bishop of Derby's deputy.
Bishop Malcolm read a statement which claimed the chaplain remained a risk based on what he might say in future sermons. Mr Elliott referred to Dr Randall's Christian beliefs as 'your views'.
Dr Randall responded by saying that his sermon reflected official CofE doctrine, not personal opinion. Mr Elliot went on to claim that saying 'things that are controversial... could significantly lead to harm', before abruptly ending the meeting. Dr Randall later told the MoS: 'This has been six years of silence, shame and spiritual exile.
'I have been punished not for wrongdoing, but for believing. The Church's safeguarding process has become a tool of coercion, not care. I am speaking out because I know I am not alone, and because no one should suffer in silence for staying true to their faith.
'I have been treated as guilty without accusation or evidence, and pressured to renounce my beliefs to be deemed safe. Despite no complainant, no evidence and no allegation of misconduct, I have been treated as a risk.'
The toll on his physical and mental health has been 'devastating'. Describing 'long periods of despair and hopelessness', he says there were times when just being asked 'How are you?' led to tears.
'The whole thing has been hanging over us, and of course my stress and distress is felt by them [my family], especially my wife, who sees me suffering and can do very little about it. Because of the way the Church has treated me, we can't move on. Once, I started thinking about self-immolating on the floor of General Synod [the church's ruling body] as a protest.
'The tears came when I realised they'd just put it down as an unfortunate incident, and then carry on in the same way as before.'
Andrea Williams, of the Christian Legal Centre, says Dr Randall's case is less about safe-guarding than censorship and freedom of speech.
She says the CofE 'continues to treat Dr Randall as a risk without presenting any evidence or allegations', adding: 'This is a clear abuse of process and a violation of his rights. It is heartbreaking to see a man of faith and integrity suffer so profoundly for doing what he was called to do.
'Bernard Randall has been vindicated time and again, yet the Church continues to punish him.
'How much longer must he wait for justice?'