Chaplain 'unfairly dismissed' over LGBT concerns, tribunal hears

A school chaplain has claimed he was unfairly dismissed from his job after he opposed plans to promote LGBT inclusivity.

Rev Bernard Randall was made redundant from his role at Trent College, in Derbyshire, at the end of 2021.

An employment tribunal in Nottingham heard how he had disagreed with senior college staff over proposals to implement a programme drawn up by charity Educate and Celebrate.

The hearing is due to last three weeks.

Giving evidence, Rev Randall, 49, said he did not believe parts of the programme's content were compatible with the Christian ethos of the fee-paying school in Long Eaton where he had a role in the pastoral care of the students.

He said some of the terminology within the programme was "ideologically loaded and misleading", and he highlighted phrases such as "sex assigned at birth" and "cisgender".

Rev Randall told the tribunal: "Educate and Celebrate went beyond a neutral stance of inclusivity into the implantation of ideas I consider to be identity politics."

He told the tribunal the Educate and Celebrate programme was "based on a Marxist and atheist reading of the universe that I think is wrong".

He said he told his managers he believed some of the content went against Christian values and the stated aims of the school to educate boys and girls "in accordance with the Protestant and Evangelical principles of the Church of England".

The tribunal heard the school held a session in September 2018 when representatives of the charity urged staff to chant "smash heteronormativity" - the concept that heterosexuality is the normal form of sexual orientation - while assembled in the dining hall.

Rev Randall said he found the chanting worrying.

He said he did not take part in the chanting himself and challenged charity representatives who were present.

He told the tribunal he then raised his concerns with senior staff including his view that it was inappropriate to set up a group called Youth Pride in a Christian school because Pride was one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

He claimed he was later excluded from discussions about the implementation of the Educate and Celebrate programme in the school "because he might disagree with it".

Rev Randall told the tribunal he had not disagreed with all parts of the programme.

The tribunal continues.

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