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.

On July 27, The Mail on Sunday reported on Dr Randall’s continuing exclusion from C of E ministry after the controversy over his sermon: “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’.”

The paper reported on a meeting Dr Randall had in June with church officials in his local Diocese of Derby in an attempt to get his licence back. He met with CofE safeguarding adviser Lee Elliot and the Bishop of Repton, Malcolm Macnaughton.

The paper reported: “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.”

How can anyone who has read even one of the New Testament Gospels suggest that followers of Jesus Christ should not say “controversial” things? Matthew’s Gospel describes Jesus getting embroiled in controversy as soon as he was born. Matthew chapter two describes how the Holy Family had to flee from Israel to Egypt because the Roman puppet King of Judea, Herod ‘the Great’ (c.72-c.4 BC), wanted to have the infant Jesus killed. Herod, becoming increasingly paranoid as he aged, was convinced that public opinion might consider Jesus to be the rightful Jewish Messiah because Bethlehem, the Judean town where Jesus was born, had Messianic associations.

Read it all in Christian Today

Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire.