A Chaplain’s Vindication

Posted on July 15, 2026 
Filed under Church of England, Culture wars

Andrea Williams, Director of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre in Great Britain, shines a light on the “institutional self-loathing” of the Church of England and the toll on a minister of the gospel –

“Dr Bernard Randall’s seven-year ordeal is one of the most extraordinary and disturbing cases I and the team at the Christian Legal Centre have ever had the privilege of being involved in.

Here was a Church of England chaplain, preaching in a Church of England chapel, in a school with a Church of England ethos, giving a sermon rooted in Church of England doctrine.

He encouraged pupils to think, to debate, and to love their neighbours. He did not bully. He did not harass. He did not incite hatred. He did what a Christian minister is called to do. …

The Church of England should have defended Bernard immediately. It should have recognised that a chaplain in a Christian school must be free to articulate Christian doctrine.

Instead, it joined the pile-on. It blacklisted him, demanded he submit to a psychological assessment by someone whose work included assessing serious offenders, and left him shut out of ministry for years.…”

– Read it all at The Critic. Photo: Christian Concern.

See also:

Chaplain wins double vindication after sermon on identity – Christian Concern.

“…it was the way the Church of England treated him that beggared belief. He was blacklisted by his church denomination over baseless safeguarding concerns.

Had he preached in a CofE place of worship, he could have faced disciplinary action.”