Sacked for Preaching in a Christian Chapel
Rev. Dr Bernard Randall | President, NCTU | Former School Chaplain
The Situation
Rev. Dr Bernard Randall served as chaplain at Trent College — an independent boarding school in Derbyshire with a Church of England ethos. A former Cambridge college chaplain with a distinguished academic background, Bernard had given his life to Christian ministry and theological education. His role at Trent College was to serve the spiritual needs of its students and community — to preach, to pray, to pastor.
In 2018, the school made a decision that would change everything. Trent College invited Educate & Celebrate to provide staff training. Their leader encouraged staff — including Bernard — to chant “smash heteronormativity.” In line with his responsibilities as chaplain, Bernard raised concerns about the accuracy and appropriateness of this teaching within a school that held itself out as having a Church of England ethos. His concerns were noted — and ignored.
In January 2019, the school adopted the LGBT curriculum across all years, excluding Bernard from any involvement despite the concerns he had raised.
Then, in June 2019, a pupil submitted a question to the chaplain. Bernard answered it — from the pulpit, in the chapel, as a minister of the Church of England, in a Church of England school.
His sermon, titled Competing Ideologies, told students that people should not be compelled to believe in any ideology, referenced the Church of England’s own teaching on marriage, and emphasised the need to love your neighbour no matter what they believe.
It was a moderate, measured, theologically grounded sermon. It was also the beginning of six years of injustice.
The Challenge
What followed was swift, severe, and — in Bernard’s own view — predetermined.
The school suspended Bernard, reporting him to Prevent — the government’s counter-terrorism watchdog — as well as other agencies. A safeguarding referral led to him being blacklisted for ministry by his Church of England diocese, which concluded that Bernard’s biblical view of marriage was a “risk factor.”
The diocese — the same institution whose own doctrine Bernard had preached — concluded that he was a risk to children for doing so. Bernard has been prevented from giving a public sermon since 2020.
In August 2019, Bernard received a letter stating that the headmaster had concluded his actions amounted to gross misconduct and he would be dismissed. Bernard appealed, the sacking was overturned, and he was allowed to return to work — subject to stringent management instructions.
But the school was not finished. Following Covid lockdowns, the school said it wanted to make the chaplaincy a 0.2 full-time equivalent post — an offer Bernard could not accept — and he was made redundant.
Then came the legal action, the tribunal, and the years of compounding injustice. Following the Employment Tribunal’s ruling against Bernard in February 2023, the headteacher of Trent College made what was described as a malicious referral to the Teaching Regulation Authority and the Disclosure and Barring Service — aimed at preventing Bernard from teaching and working with children indefinitely. These referrals were made despite the fact that Prevent, the Local Authority Designated Officer, the Teaching Regulation Authority, and the Disclosure and Barring Service had all concluded that no further action was appropriate.
Despite four secular organisations concluding that Bernard had done nothing wrong, he remained blacklisted by the Church of England’s Derby Diocese safeguarding team as a “risk to children” for delivering the sermon.
The original tribunal panel compounded the injustice. The presiding lay member, Mr Jed Purkis, had made a series of anti-Christian posts on social media both before and after ruling against Bernard on every point — including statements that only atheists should be allowed to run for office and deeply offensive remarks about Christians. In March 2024, the entire panel was forced to recuse itself from another case for apparent bias after these posts were discovered.
Bernard had been tried by a panel that had made up its mind before the hearing began.
And through all of it, the CofE’s safeguarding adviser continued to insist that if his sermons taught things that are controversial — such as the Church’s own teaching on marriage and sexual ethics — they “could significantly lead to harm.” A minister of the Church, barred from preaching by the Church, for teaching what the Church teaches.
Our Support
Throughout every stage of this long and complex battle, Bernard was supported by Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre — the organisations from which NCTU was born. The support was not simply transactional. It was sustained, principled, and personal.
He received representation through the initial disciplinary process, the employment tribunal, the complaint against Bishop Libby Lane, legal action against the headteacher personally, and ultimately the Employment Appeal Tribunal. At every turn — when institutions failed him, when the Church abandoned him, when the process was delayed again and again — there were people in his corner who refused to give up.
In Bernard’s own words: “Your moral, spiritual support is beyond value. I’m not going to give up until we see justice done.”
That is exactly what NCTU is built to provide.
The Outcome
Bernard’s case has been one of vindication — slow, painful, and hard-won, but coming.
The organisation whose invitation to Trent College started everything — Educate and Celebrate — was closed down by the Charity Commission in 2024 following a series of scandals. One of its patrons, Stephen Ireland, was subsequently jailed for multiple sex offences against children including rape. The ideology that the school deemed safe — and Bernard’s sermon dangerous — has been exposed for what it was.
In March 2025, at the Employment Appeal Tribunal, Judge Tayler ruled the original tribunal “unsafe” due to anti-Christian bias, overturning the decision, ordering a retrial, and awarding costs. After nearly six years, Bernard finally received the acknowledgement that the process used against him had been fundamentally flawed.
The same investigating officer who had reviewed the CofE’s safeguarding case described the blacklisting of Bernard as an “egregious” and “gross” error — and the then Archbishop of Canterbury was forced to order a review of the safeguarding processes within the Derby diocese. Yet as of the time of writing, Bernard remains without his Permission to Officiate. He still cannot preach.
The retrial is yet to come. The fight is not over. But Bernard has not stopped, and he has not been alone.
Why It Matters
Bernard’s case is one of the most significant Christian freedom cases in recent British history — not because of its complexity, though it is extraordinarily complex, but because of what it represents at its simplest.
A Church of England minister, in a Church of England school, in a Church of England chapel, preached Church of England doctrine — and was reported to the government’s counter-terrorism watchdog, blacklisted from ministry, dismissed, and subjected to a years-long campaign by the very institution he served.
In Bernard’s own words: “As an ordained CofE minister working as a chaplain in a school with a CofE ethos, it was my duty to encourage debate and help children who were confused by the LGBT teaching to know that there are alternative views and beliefs on these contentious issues. I would not be where I am now if Educate and Celebrate had not been invited into Trent College. It is as simple as that.”
If this can happen to Bernard — in a Christian school, doing his job as a Christian minister — it can happen to any Christian, in any workplace, at any moment. That is why NCTU exists. That is why Bernard became its President.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”— 2 Corinthians 4:16
No Christian worker should have to fight these battles without proper support. Bernard’s case shows both what is at stake — and what becomes possible when you refuse to stand alone.
Facing challenges at work because of your faith?
Join NCTU and be supported by people who understand the process, know your rights, and will stand beside you — professionally, pastorally, and with conviction.