Bernard Randall, who is ordained in the Church of England and is a former chaplain of Christ’s College, Cambridge, is taking Trent College to court for discrimination, harassment, victimisation and unfair dismissal. He is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre,

The Mail on Sunday reported that the school had ‘secretly reported its chaplain to the anti-terrorism Prevent programme after he delivered a sermon defending the right of pupils to question its introduction of new LGBT policies’.

The newspaper stated: ‘Randall told pupils at independent Trent College near Nottingham that they were allowed to disagree with the measures, particularly if they felt they ran contrary to Church of England principles.

‘Having decided that Dr Randall’s sermon was ‘harmful to LGBT students’, the school flagged him to Prevent, which normally identifies those at risk of radicalisation.

‘Police investigated the tip-off but advised the school by email that Dr Randall, 48, posed no counter-terrorism risk, or risk of radicalisation’.

Derbyshire Police confirmed that the case did not meet the threshold for a Prevent referral.

Randall says the school told him that any future sermons might be censored in advance, and that his chapel services would be monitored. He was later fired.

The Mail on Sunday added: ‘Dr Randall’s sermon, delivered in the school chapel on 21 June 2019, was prompted, he says, by concerns from pupils about an organisation called Educate & Celebrate, run by Dr Elly Barnes, which was invited to “embed gender, gender identity and sexual orientation into the fabric” of the school. Dr Randall only learned about the Prevent referral because it was mentioned in documents given to him ahead of a disciplinary hearing.’ ‘I had visions of being investigated by MI5, of men knocking down the front door,’ he said.

‘Trent College has a “Christian ethos” and Dr Randall was appointed in 2015 to provide pastoral care, share the Christian faith and lead services in the school’s chapel.’

The newspaper also claimed that teachers were urged to chant ‘smash heteronormativity’ during a training session.

Randall told Christian Concern: ‘My story sends a message to other Christians that you are not free to talk about your faith. It seems it is no longer enough to just tolerate LGBT ideology. You must accept it without question and no debate is allowed without serious consequences. Someone else will decide what is and what isn’t acceptable, and suddenly you can become an outcast, possibly for the rest of your life.

‘I was ‘too religious’ for them in a Christian school. When I read that there had been a Prevent referral, it was just so mind-blowing, the fear. If the world is mad enough to say that a Church of England minister talking about the Church of England’s beliefs is a violent extremist, then somebody else might be mad enough to act on it.’