After a seven-year, high-profile legal battle on multiple fronts, Rev. Dr Bernard Randall, supported by the Christian Legal Centre, has secured a legal settlement with Trent College and succeeded in overturning the Church of England’s (CofE) safeguarding blacklisting of him for preaching a sermon on freedom of belief and gender identity.
Dr Randall, 53, a former Cambridge University college chaplain, is now free to preach in church again and work in an education setting for the first time in seven years after he and his legal team successfully challenged the ban imposed on him.
Had he preached in a CofE place of worship during the past seven years, he could have faced disciplinary action.
The sanction followed a sermon he delivered as chaplain of the Derbyshire college in July 2019 in a CofE school, in a CofE chapel, precisely the kind of setting where pupils might reasonably expect to hear orthodox Christian teaching.
The sermon encouraged debate and was pastoral and rooted in Anglican belief. It came after the school had invited in the external campaign group Educate and Celebrate, which openly stated its aim to “smash heteronormativity” and to embed Queer Theory throughout the culture of the school.
Yet for delivering that sermon, Dr Randall, was treated like a criminal: forced out of the college, reported to Prevent without his knowledge, and blacklisted by the Diocese of Derby as a safeguarding risk.
Meanwhile, in the years since, Educate and Celebrate has been quietly closed down by the Charity Commission following a series of scandals, including one of its patrons committing multiple sex offences against children.
Despite this clear vindication, for years Dr Randall was treated as the danger by the Diocese of Derby and senior Church of England figures, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
Despite the sermon reflecting CofE doctrine on marriage and human identity, diocesan officers concluded that the expression of Dr Randall’s biblical beliefs posed a risk, even stating that biblical teaching on marriage, and “the Church itself”, were a “risk-factor”.
As a result, the Bishop of Derby, Libby Lane, refused to allow Dr Randall to officiate in church services unless he submitted to an independent safeguarding assessment by a psychologist whose work included assessing serious offenders.
Dr Randall refused, saying such an assessment would have amounted to a tacit admission that he had done something wrong.
After a hugely drawn out, flawed and, as a senior lawyer for the CofE described, ‘egregious’ process, that safeguarding position has now been overturned in substance.
Following an independent review which was recommended by the Church’s most senior legal officer, an independent investigator for the Diocese of London found:
“After full consideration and review of the available information I cannot establish, on the balance of probabilities, that harm was caused by the delivery of the sermons. This allegation is therefore unsubstantiated.”
Furthermore, it was concluded that: “My recommendation to the [Safeguarding Case Management Group] in this matter involving Dr Randall is that the investigation finds the concern or allegation was unsubstantiated and there are no ongoing safeguarding concerns.”
Dr Randall has completed all mandatory safeguarding training; and he is now eligible for Permission to Officiate. But the Bishop of Derby has done nothing to help him return to ministry.
‘Seven years taken from me’
Dr Randall said: “Seven years have been taken from me for doing my duty as a CofE chaplain in a school with a CofE ethos. I encouraged pupils to think, to debate, and to love their neighbours whatever they believed. No minister, teacher or chaplain should be punished for upholding Christian teaching in a Christian setting.
“I am relieved that this legal ordeal has finally reached a settlement, but nothing can restore the years that have been taken from me. I was reported to Prevent, treated as a safeguarding risk, and shut out of ministry for preaching a sermon rooted in CofE doctrine.
“The process and repeated delays has been an extreme punishment which has denied me justice for so long. I still don’t really know what the specifically safeguarding concern might have been. The Derby team explicitly said the concern was not the sermon, the London team were only interested in the sermon. No one from the Church has suggested there was misconduct or inappropriate behaviour on my part, let alone anything remotely abusive. I can only conclude it was opposition to the Church’s own teaching from within, coupled with an inability to own up to it all being a mistake from the start.
“My case has revealed the extent of the corruption within the Church, our schools and in the judiciary, and should deeply concern us all.
“It has been an extraordinary journey, and one I never would have dreamed I would have had to bear. My faith and loyalty to the Church has been tested to the extreme. I have experienced many dark hours, but I have come through it and now want to get on with my life and get back to what I have always loved and been passionate about doing: serving Jesus and his Church.
“I want to thank my legal team and everyone who has stood with and supported me, and especially the many people who have prayed for me throughout this ordeal.
“It is time for the Church and our institutions to recognise what has happened to me and to ensure it never happens again.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said:
“Bernard Randall has endured one of the most extraordinary and disturbing cases we have ever supported. It has always been and still is a huge scandal. Secular bodies repeatedly vindicated him, but the Church of England, the institution that should have supported him the most, repeatedly failed him.
“What he has been through would have finished a weaker man, but Bernard has stood and stood again and again for his beliefs and the pursuit of justice.
“Bernard Randall cares deeply and passionately about the Church of England. Many would have understandably walked away from it after how he was treated. Bernard has not and this courage has been immense.
“Bernard now deserves a future in the Church he has served so faithfully. Few clergy are better placed to understand the urgent need for reform, both in how the Church of England upholds and applies its own teaching in schools and places of worship, and in how its safeguarding processes are used and must not be abused.
“The settlement with Trent College is also a significant moment and an admission that Bernard was deeply wronged, revealing how a school can so badly lose its way once it bows the knee to transgender ideology.
“Bernard’s case exposes how easily safeguarding process, equality policies and extreme transgender ideology can be misused to silence Christian beliefs. Schools, churches and public bodies must learn from this case and protect, rather than punish, lawful Christian expression.
“We call on the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, urgently to meet with Bernard.”
Extreme Queer Theory
Dr Randall’s case began in June 2018 when Trent College invited Educate and Celebrate to deliver staff training.
During the session, staff, including Dr Randall, were encouraged to chant “smash heteronormativity” by its founder, Elly Barnes, who claimed to be a doctor, which was subsequently shown to be just an honorary title.
During this training, which Dr Randall attended, Ms Barnes falsely told staff that “gender identity” was protected under the Equality Act (which it is not), and that her organisation was recognised by Ofsted, which it was not.
Before going defunct, Educate and Celebrate were given access to thousands of schools across the country teaching “Queer Theory”, the gender unicorn and telling educators to remove the terms “boys and girls” from the school environment.
As the school chaplain, Dr Randall raised concerns with senior leaders about the accuracy and appropriateness of E&C’s “gold standard” teaching programme being introduced to the school and nursery, particularly in light of the school’s Christian foundation and his pastoral responsibilities.
Despite those concerns, in January 2019, the school adopted an extreme gender identity curriculum across all years, including the nursery, and excluded Dr Randall from involvement even though he had questioned the suitability of the programme.
The decision intensified tensions over whether a CofE school could promote extreme and contested ideological claims while marginalising its chaplain’s attempt to uphold the school’s stated ethos.
Reported to Prevent and safeguarding authorities
In June 2019, after a pupil submitted a question asking why students were being told they “have to accept” gender identity teaching in a Christian school, Dr Randall delivered a chapel sermon entitled Competing ideologies.
The consequences for Dr Randall, however, were devastating.
In a Stalinesque development, without his knowledge, Dr Randall was reported by Trent College to the government’s terrorist watchdog, Prevent, for “religious extremism”.
He was also reported to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) as a potential “safeguarding risk”. Both said he had no case to answer.
In August 2019, following an investigation, Dr Randall received a letter stating that the Headmaster, Bill Penty, had concluded his conduct amounted to gross misconduct and that he would be dismissed.
He appealed, and the dismissal was overturned, but he was issued with a final warning and allowed to return only under stringent management instructions which curtailed his freedom as chaplain and amounted to direct censorship.
By January 2020, Dr Randall had commenced proceedings against Trent College for direct and indirect discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, harassment, victimisation and breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, and later, unfair dismissal.
Later that year, following Covid lockdowns and a period on furlough, the school said it wanted to reduce the chaplaincy role to seven hours per week during term-time only, down from a full-time post.
Dr Randall could not accept the reduced role and was subsequently made redundant.
The litigation widened in April 2021 when Dr Randall amended his claim to include unfair dismissal and victimisation.
Kafkaesque interrogations
The CofE’s safeguarding team at the Derby Diocese became aware of the sermon
One member of staff is recorded as describing the sacking as “a game changer”, and initiated a safeguarding process, even though no complaint or allegation of wrongdoing was ever made.
The safeguarding process led to him being blacklisted from ministry by Bishop Libby Lane’s Diocese of Derby, who refused to give him a ‘Permission to Officiate’ licence after his redundancy.
If losing his job and licence was not enough, Dr Randall then experienced what he describes as “Kafkaesque interrogations” by the CofE’s local safeguarding team, not even being told what safeguarding-related concerns were being investigated.
In July 2021, amid the ongoing Church of England safeguarding process, he was told that he would need to undergo an independent safeguarding assessment by a psychologist. The psychologist chosen specialised in assessing sex offenders.
For declining, Dr Randall was blacklisted from his vocation and pursued a serious complaint of misconduct over this decision.
Justin Welby ‘plainly wrong’
In July 2022 with all other avenues for justice exhausted, Dr Randall brought a misconduct complaint against Bishop Libby Lane under the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003, including his own safeguarding complaint and alleging that her conduct had been abusive.
In response, Justin Welby, then Archbishop of Canterbury, refused permission for a formal investigation into Dr Randall’s complaint against Bishop Lane and dismissed it.
He also did not refer the case to the National Safeguarding Team, leaving unresolved questions about how the Church had treated a minister whose sermon reflected its own doctrine.
However, a senior Church legal officer for clergy discipline, Gregory Jones KC, subsequently found that the Archbishop had “misunderstood the scope of his powers”, and was “plainly wrong”.
The same investigating officer described the process leading to the blacklisting of Dr Randall as “egregious” and a “gross” error, and could find no evidence to conclude that he was a safeguarding risk.
Nine of Dr Randall’s thirteen allegations were sent back to Bishop Lane for a formal response.
But the process continued to stall. In July 2023, Justin Welby again determined that no further action should be taken against Bishop Lane.
By November 2023, Dr Randall’s complaint was finally passed to the Designated Officer for investigation, prolonging a process which had already left him unable to resume ministry.
Despite repeatedly trying to block the case proceeding, Justin Welby was effectively overruled by the Church’s most senior legal officer, President of Tribunals Dame Sarah Asplin concluded that how Dr Randall’s case had been handled was ‘highly unsatisfactory’ and that the process should be restarted from the beginning, but refused to recommend disciplinary action against the Bishop of Derby over the failures.
Employment Tribunal ruling and anti-Christian bias
After launching legal action over his dismissal by Trent College, Dr Randall’s case employment case was heard at Nottingham Justice Centre in September 2022, before Employment Judge Victoria Butler and two lay members which included trade unionist, Mr Jed Purkis.
In February 2023, the Employment Tribunal upheld Dr Randall’s dismissal.
In her ruling, Judge Butler said that Dr Randall had “misconceived” who Educate and Celebrate were. Judge Butler had also suggested that Bernard had “taken an extreme view of Educate and Celebrate…” and she repeatedly and falsely stated that the group were recognised by Ofsted.
Unknown to Dr Randall’s legal team at the time, before and after a ruling was made on the case, which found against Dr Randall on every point, Mr Purkis had made a series of anti-Christian and anti-conservative posts on social media.
Mr Purkis stated: “Only atheists should be allowed to run for office”, accompanied by, “Damn right, you won’t catch us killing in the name of our non-god”.
He also said of Christians: “If they’re that f***ing super how come there’s so much shit going on in the world?” and “I need no ‘higher power’ to tell me the right way to treat people and behave…”
Similar Christian teacher case collapses after apparent bias
In March 2024, at the same Nottingham tribunal, Judge Butler and Mr Purkis also began presiding on another similar Christian Legal Centre case, involving Christian teacher “Hannah”.
Hannah was taking legal action after being sacked for raising safeguarding concerns about an 8-year-old “transitioning” under the guidance of Stonewall in a primary school.
During this hearing, Mr Purkis’ anti-Christian posts were discovered, and a recusal application was made by Hannah’s lawyers for “apparent bias”.
In a rare move, Judge Victoria Butler was forced to recuse the whole panel, including herself, and the hearing collapsed.
The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, supported by the senior president of tribunals and the Lord Chancellor, subsequently said that Purkis’ comments amounted to misconduct and he was given a formal rebuke.
This controversy would play a key role in Dr Randall’s appeal.
Educate and Celebrate closes amid scandal
In the meantime, however, as a result of the Butler ruling, Dr Randall was reported by Trent College to the Teaching Regulation Agency and the Disclosure and Barring Service, who both concluded that Dr Randall had no case to answer.
Further vindications followed, with Educate and Celebrate, being plagued by scandal to the point that it was quietly closed by the Charity Commission.
One patron, Stephen Ireland, has been jailed for 24 years for a series of sex offences against children, including the rape of a 12-year-old boy.
Despite all of these vindications, the CofE continued to refuse to reinstate Dr Randall.
Appeal succeeds
In February 2024, Dr Randall’s Employment Appeal Tribunal hearing was postponed pending the outcome of the landmark Kristie Higgs case, which was also supported by the Christian Legal Centre.
On 12 February 2025, the Court of Appeal handed down a landmark ruling in the Higgs’ case, providing important precedent for cases involving Christian freedom in the workplace.
Dr Randall’s appeal then finally began on 4 March 2025 on thirteen grounds, including: alleged bias by the original Butler/Purkis tribunal panel, improper treatment of the theological nature of his sermon, misapplication of human rights protections, procedural unfairness, failure to consider the safeguarding blacklist and Prevent referral, and failure to recognise that his sermon reflected CofE doctrine.
Judge James Tayler subsequently ruled that the original ‘Purkis Butler’ Employment Tribunal judgment was “unsafe” and ordered an urgent retrial.
Having accepted that Mr Purkis was biased despite having argued to the contrary, Trent College was ordered to pay £20,000 in costs.
Following that ruling, a confidential legal settlement was reached between the College and Dr Randall.
Safeguarding conclusion
Dr Randall’s safeguarding blacklisting has also now been overturned in substance.
Following the recommendation for a review, the Diocese of London conducted an ‘independent’ safeguarding review.
From the beginning, however, this process was highly flawed as it should have recommenced from the beginning, but instead began from the premise that there was already a safeguarding concern.
Two years since the review was ordered, the review has found no safeguarding concerns about Dr Randall with no allegations upheld. He has completed all mandatory safeguarding training and is eligible for Permission to Officiate if the Bishop of Derby chooses to grant it.
Despite no concerns being upheld, and successive failures to follow statutory procedures by the safeguarding teams, the Diocese of London’s independent investigator concluded:
“The Practice Guidance is there to address ‘safeguarding concerns’ and as such, more constructive cooperation with the process by Dr Randall could have enabled it to be brought it to an earlier conclusion.
“His belief that his actions were 100% correct and that he did not see or recognise the potential outcome of this case, shows a failure to fully understand what safeguarding both means and strives to achieve.
“Dr Randall will be required to undertake Safeguarding Training prior to any PtO is granted and this may assist him in his understanding and awareness.”
Dr Randall’s legal team believe that such a statement means that the CofE’s process continues to punish him for maintaining that he did nothing wrong by preaching a sermon rooted in Church of England doctrine, and he could be put through the same process again if he were to preach a similar sermon in line with the Church’s own teaching.
There has been no apology for the remarkable fact that the Church took nearly seven years to reach its conclusion, whereas the secular LADO took just one day to determine that it was not a safeguarding matter but rather an “issue regarding the subject’s beliefs which ran contrary to his employers [Trent College].” The Church of England’s bishops declared in 2021 that Dr Randall’s sermon contained “nothing … outside the doctrine and teaching of the Church of England”, making the contrast in treatment even more extraordinary.
The independent investigator also said: “It is a matter for the Designated Safeguarding Lead for the Diocese of Derby as to what they feel is an appropriate role for Dr Randall to be considered for. He may choose to apply for a licence, for Permission to Officiate (PtO) or may apply for another role within a school or another educational facility.”
It now remains to be seen how the Derby Diocese and Bishop of Derby will actively help and support Dr Randall back into full time ministry within the CofE.