Chaplain settles unfair dismissal case after LGBT sermon controversy

For seven years, a Church of England chaplain stood at the intersection of religious conviction and institutional authority, his career suspended after a single sermon at a Derbyshire boarding school ignited a dispute that would travel through employment tribunals, counter-terrorism referrals, and an appeal court before arriving, quietly, at a confidential settlement. Rev Bernard Randall's case was never simply about one sermon — it became a prolonged reckoning with the boundaries of religious expression within institutions that hold competing obligations to faith, inclusion, and safeguarding.