Today an ordained Church of England chaplain, sacked and reported to a terrorist watchdog for a sermon on identity politics, will begin his appeal at the Employment Appeal Tribunal.
Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, Rev. Dr Bernard Randall, 51, is seeking permission to appeal on 13 grounds after his sacking was controversially upheld in 2023.
Dr Randall took legal action against Trent College in Derbyshire following his dismissal for a sermon he gave in 2019 on the CofE’s own teaching on marriage, in a CofE chapel, in a school with a CofE ethos.
He gave the sermon saying it was ok for students to question and debate LGBT teaching after Trent College invited extreme gender identity group, Educate and Celebrate (E&C) into the school to ‘smash heteronormativity.’
Dr Randall was subsequently blacklisted as a ‘safeguarding risk’ by the CofE, and he has been barred from ministry for almost six years.
In that time, however, Dr Randall’s concerns over E&C have been vindicated with the government funded group plagued by scandal, including one if its patrons facing multiple child sex offence charges.
Facing repeated delays in his pursuit of full justice, Dr Randall’s appeal was ‘stayed’ last year pending the outcome of the landmark Kristie Higgs case at the Court of Appeal.
Judge James Tayler justified the stay due to the precedent the Higgs ruling would set in a higher court for Dr Randall’s appeal.
Both cases involve issues of principle about the freedom for Christians to express their beliefs and opposition to harmful transgender ideology, sex education and extreme gender identity beliefs without fear of losing their jobs.
Earlier this month, Mrs Higgs, who has also been supported by the Christian Legal Centre, won her ground-breaking case with judges ruling that her dismissal was “disproportionate” and “constituted unlawful discrimination on the ground of religion and belief.”
The bias controversy
Prominent at this week’s permission hearing is likely to be the issue of ‘apparent bias’ in Dr Randall’s original employment tribunal ruling.
At the Nottingham Justice Centre in September 2022, the presiding panel of three included Judge Victoria Butler, and lay member Mr Jed Purkis.
Before and after a ruling was made on the case, which found against Dr Randall on every point, Mr Purkis 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…’
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 Mr Jed Purkis’ comments amounted to misconduct and he was given a formal rebuke.
The incident has brought into question the ruling Judge Butler and Mr Purkis made against Dr Randall with lawyers expected to now say that there can be no sensible objection or delay to Dr Randall’s appeal proceeding on the bias ground alone.
Vindications
Since Judge Butler and Mr Purkis ruled against Dr Randall in February 2023, he has had a series of vindications.
Prevent, the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), and the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) have all said that he has no case to answer.
Following his sacking, in 2022 he was blacklisted as a safeguarding risk to children by the CofE in Derby Diocese for his sermon.
Dr Randall pursued a serious complaint of misconduct over the decision to blacklist him, but this was blocked by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. (ABC) However, a senior Church legal officer for clergy discipline found that the Archbishop had ‘misunderstood the scope of his powers’, and was ‘plainly wrong’.
The same investigating officer described the blacklisting of Dr Randall as ‘egregious’ and ‘gross’ error. Justin Welby was forced to order a review of the safeguarding processes within the Deby diocese.
A year since this decision, the CofE has still not resolved the issue or given Dr Randall’s ‘Permission to Officiate’ certificate back.
Educate and Celebrate child sex charges
Furthermore, Dr Randall has been vindicated over why he gave the sermon in the first place.
In 2018 Trent College invited an extreme gender identity group who promote Queer Theory, Educate and Celebrate (E&C), into the school where he was employed as chaplain.
Revelations and scandals about E&C, which was quietly closed by the Charity Commission in 2024, continue to highlight the deep injustice at the heart of Dr Randall’s case.
In August 2024, for example, a patron of E&C, Stephen Ireland, was charged with multiple accounts of sex abuse against children, including rape and conspiracy to kidnap.
E&C was also forced to remove another leading patron, transgender comic, Jordan Grey, for stripping naked on Channel Four and playing the piano with his genitalia.
Gray had suggested that he went into schools to “talk about gender” on behalf of E&C, adding that “toddlers kind of get it straight away.”
In the ruling that Dr Randall is appealing, Employment Judge Butler wrongly asserted several times that: “E&C is an Ofsted and DfE recognised best practice programme.”
Furthermore, Judge Butler said in her judgment, that: “[Dr Randall] takes an extreme view of E&C which bears no resemblance to the reality of its purpose and implementation, which was aimed simply at creating an inclusive environment for all. We saw and heard no evidence that came anywhere close to supporting [Dr Randall’s] view that E&C would indoctrinate pupils in such a way.”
‘My case impacts everybody’
Ahead of the hearing, Dr Randall said: “I am encouraged by the Higgs ruling but also hugely frustrated by the series of delays my case has faced.
“My case concerns everybody. The gender identity and Queer Theory agenda sowing deep seeds of confusion in young children is now embedded in our schools. That agenda is anti-Christian and unashamedly aims to stamp out any Christian influence in our schools, and indeed any opposition, dissenting voice, or even debate on their dangerous ideology.
“All the secular safeguarding authorities have cleared me entirely; I now need justice from the courts and the Church of England so that I can have my life and vocation back.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which has backed Dr Randall’s case from the beginning, said: “Justice delayed is justice denied. It is now almost six years since Bernard gave a sermon.
“If this ruling is not overturned and Bernard does not receive justice, then any parent, child, teacher or chaplain who opposes the agenda of ‘smashing heteronormativity’ in our schools, is not safe from losing their jobs, or worse. We have to win it and will not give up until we have.”
