Chaplain to Sue Headteacher Who ‘Secretly’ Reported Him to Counter-Terrorism Watchdog

Rev. Bernard Randall in England in an undated file photo. (Courtesy of Christian Concern)

A Christian chaplain who was forced out of his job and reported to a terrorist watchdog for giving a sermon defending the right to question LGBT ideology is suing the headmaster of the school.

Rev. Bernard Randall, 49, from Derbyshire, a former chaplain of Christ’s College, Cambridge, is taking Trent College’s headmaster in Derbyshire to court for victimisation, continued harassment, and discrimination on the grounds of his Christian beliefs.

Based on his experiences, he told The Epoch Times the he believed that the UK is currently in a “soft totalitarianism,” which could harden without pushback.

Prevent

In 2019, Mr. Randall was disciplined and lost his job as a chaplain at the fee-paying Church of England (CofE) school Trent College after preaching a sermon that presented the Christian viewpoint on gender identity and LGBT ideology.

The school reported him to Prevent, the government’s counter-terrorism watchdog, after he raised concerns at the school about an external LGBT group, Educate and Celebrate, that had encouraged school staff to chant “smash heteronormativity” at a training session.

Mr. Randall then took the school to an employment tribunal over alleged religious discrimination after he was sacked. However, in Feb. 2023, a judge ruled against his legal claims. He is now appealing this ruling. Police said that they found that it did not meet the threshold for a Prevent referral, and no further action was taken and no case was recorded on the force system.

On Tuesday, the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting the chaplain, said he has now made a claim against the headteacher of Trent College, Bill Penty. A full hearing is expected in 2024, it said.

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Christian Legal Centre also described Mr. Penty’s referral made to the Teaching Regulation Authority aimed at barring the former Cambridge college chaplain from the profession as “malicious.”

His team claimed that Mr. Penty also referred Mr. Randall to the Disclosure and Barring Service, which could see him banned from working with children altogether, and even working as a vicar.

Trent College did not respond to The Epoch Times for comment. The college previously told The Telegraph that it is “an inclusive community where we are proud of our commitment to support the wellbeing of everyone.”

“We want every single pupil to be safe and feel understood here,” it added.

‘Halfway Between Gentle Wokeness of Britain and Extreme Communism of the Soviet Union’

Mr. Randall has been blacklisted by the CofE as a result and prevented from giving a public sermon since 2020. When approached, a CofE spokesperson told The Epoch Times that “The Church of England is not a single entity but is made up of autonomous dioceses” and said to contact the Diocese of Derby.

Mr. Randall told The Epoch Times that it was “alarming” that fact that the teaching regulation agency “didn’t instantly dismiss it and say, well, there’s clearly nothing here that’s untoward.”

“Part of my job as a Christian minister is to stand up on truth and that’s the truth not only from myself, a Christian belief, but also the right of everybody to hold their own views and discuss things openly,” he said.

“What’s happened with my case is right on the extreme end of what can happen in our society at the moment. Most people think it’s been extreme what’s happened to me, and yet it’s not so very far from what’s happening at a low level elsewhere in Britain,” he said.

“I’m sort of halfway between that gentle wokeness of Britain and the extreme communism of the Soviet Union,” he said.

“The direction of travel is toward that sort of totalitarian authoritarian ideal. At the moment, it’s soft totalitarianism,” he added.

“But unless we stand up and push back, it will become more strict, harder totalitarianism,” he added.

Mulling on why wokeism seems to be prevalent across CofE institutions, he said that the “people in charge are really part of a sort of a liberal, managerial elite kind of group, wherever you want to call that, that class of people who are really engaged with the woke ideas.”

“The sort of managerialism of the Church of England leans toward wokeness, just as managerialism across all of education so much we’ve seen the civil service, so many areas lead towards wokeness, diversity and inclusion and equity,” he added.

He said that because the CofE wants to minister where they are, which he says “is good instinct,” and it “takes on too much of the characteristic, the wider culture, and then the managers don’t have the resources to challenge it.”

“And the clergy at the coalface, ministers pastors, to meeting people day to day, are not supported by the people in the back room,” he said.

‘There’s Nothing Good or Kind About This’

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “It should be of concern to everyone when a mild-mannered vicar ends up being reported as a safeguarding risk for saying you can believe marriage is between a man and a woman.

“If Bernard Randall is deemed not fit to work with children by the Church of England and school authorities, then none of us are safe.

“To throw him out of the vocation he loves, report him to the local authority for safeguarding and stop him working with children, is to wreck his life. He has not been allowed to preach a sermon for over four years. There’s nothing good or kind about this.

“Bernard’s case shows vividly the intolerance of tolerance. We need more teachers and chaplains, like Bernard, working with children, not less.”

The Epoch Times contacted The Department for Education and the Diocese of Derby for comment.