A school chaplain, Bernard Randall, 53, has been reinstated after a seven-year legal battle following his dismissal for delivering a sermon on gender at Trent College, a private school in Derbyshire. Randall was sacked in 2019 after telling pupils that marriage is between a biological man and a woman. The sermon was delivered after a visit from an external campaign group called Educate and Celebrate, which reportedly aimed to embed "queer theory" and "smash heteronormativity" at the school. Educate and Celebrate was later dissolved by the Charity Commission in 2024, and its founders were convicted of child sex offenses.
Following his sermon, Randall was banned from preaching by the Diocese of Derby and blacklisted by senior clergy within the Church of England. Staff at Trent College also reported him to Prevent, a government program focused on counter-terrorism, without his knowledge. Randall maintained that his intention was to encourage debate among students, who were attending the service in an Anglican Chapel at the time.
In response to his reinstatement, Randall stated that seven years had been taken from him for upholding Christian teaching in a school with a Christian ethos. He emphasized that no minister, teacher, or chaplain should be punished for adhering to Christian doctrine in a Christian setting. His legal team argued that senior clergy, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, had delayed justice in his case. The Christian Legal Centre, which supported Randall, described his case as "extraordinary and disturbing," noting that while secular bodies vindicated him, the Church of England failed to provide support.