For six years, the Church of England has stopped one of its own chaplains from fulfilling his ministry.
Why? Because he held to the Bible and didn’t promote LGBT ideology.
Rev. Dr Bernard Randall was blacklisted by Derby Diocese for supposed safeguarding concerns because he gave a sermon in school chapel which said that pupils should be free to hold to a Biblical view of marriage – the Church of England’s own doctrine.
Bernard has been cleared by several other secular agencies because there is no safeguarding case for him to even answer. But all these years later, the Church is still ludicrously saying that he remains a risk because of what he might say in future sermons.
This has to stop now.
The Church’s treatment of Bernard raises questions over whether any minister who holds to Biblical views about marriage and sexuality has a future in the denomination. If he can be treated like this, so can anyone.
But it’s also taken a huge personal toll on Bernard and his family.
Every day that he is prevented from pursuing his vocation adds to the damage the Church of England is causing.
Bernard says:
“This has been six years of silence, shame, and spiritual exile. I have been punished not for wrongdoing, but for believing. The Church’s safeguarding process has become a tool of coercion, not care. I am speaking out now because I know I am not alone, and because no one should suffer in silence for staying true to their faith.
Ask the Church of England and Derby Diocese leadership to apologise and restore Bernard to ministry immediately.
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