School chaplain sacked over gender sermon at £40k-a-year school wins 7-year battle to be reinstated

Published: 16:05, 10 July 2026 | Updated: 16:24, 10 July 2026 A School chaplain sacked and referred to the government’s terrorism prevention programme for delivering a sermon on gender has won a seven-year battle to be reinstated. Bernard Randall, 53, was banned from preaching after he told pupils at Trent College, Derbyshire that marriage is between a biological man and woman. He gave the address at the £40,000 a year school in 2019 following a visit from an external campaign group called Educate and Celebrate. During a training day at the school the now defunct charity used the phrase ‘smash heteronormativity’ adding that it wanted to embed ‘queer theory’ at the school. Educate and Celebrate was shut down by the Charity Commission in 2024 and last year its founders Steven Ireland and David Sutton were jailed for child sex offences. Following his sermon, Dr Randall, was banned from preaching by the Diocese of Derby and blacklisted by senior clergy in the Church of England. Staff at the school reported the former Cambridge University chaplain, to Prevent the government’s terrorism watchdog without his knowledge. Despite insisting his speech to pupils, who were sitting in an Anglican Chapel at the time, was only supposed to promote ‘debate’ Dr Randall was ‘treated like a criminal’. Dr Bernard Randall has won a seven year legal campaign to be reinstated as a preacher  Responding to his reinstatement, Dr Randall said: ‘Seven years have been taken from me for doing my duty as a CofE chaplain in a school with a CofE ethos. ‘I encouraged pupils to think, to debate, and to love their neighbours whatever they believed. ‘No minister, teacher or chaplain should be punished for upholding Christian teaching in a Christian setting. ‘I am relieved that this legal ordeal has finally reached a settlement, but nothing can restore the years that have been taken from me. ‘I was reported to Prevent, treated as a safeguarding risk, and shut out of ministry for preaching a sermon rooted in CofE doctrine.’ Dr Randall’s lawyers went on to argue that senior clergy, including the disgraced former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, delayed justice being given to Dr Randall. Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: ‘Bernard Randall has endured one of the most extraordinary and disturbing cases we have ever supported. It has always been and still is a huge scandal. ‘Secular bodies repeatedly vindicated him, but the Church of England, the institution that should have supported him the most, repeatedly failed him.’