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ENGLAND: Biologist vicar resigns after clash with Bishop and Headteacher over transgender indoctrination in church school

ENGLAND: Biologist vicar resigns after clash with Bishop and Headteacher over transgender indoctrination in church school

By David W. Virtue, DD
www.virtueonline.org
May 28, 2019

An Oxford biologist has resigned as vicar of All Saints, Fordham and Eight Ash Green, in Colchester, after a clash with Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford over the gender transitioning of an eight-year-old boy.

"I was basically told by my bishop that if I wished to faithfully follow the teachings of the Bible then I was no longer welcome in the Church. It felt very much like the Church and the school were silencing me," the Rev. Linsey John Owen Parker, aka John Parker, a conservative evangelical clergyman, told the Daily Mail, a British newspaper.

The vicar was a victim of an arrangement bringing together Bishop Cottrell, Diocesan Director of Education Reverend Tim Elbourne, Headteacher Ceri Daniels and a transgender campaign group called Mermaids, a source from the village school in Essex told VOL.

When an eight-year-old child announced he was transitioning to become a girl, Parker raised concerns that the school had no formal policy on how staff should deal with a child who wanted to change gender.

There was also no guidance on whether the pupil would be allowed to use female toilets or share changing rooms or accommodation with girls during trips.

Parker queried if the transitioning had been approved by a psychologist or a medical professional, but his questions remained unanswered.

Ceri Daniels, Headteacher of Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School Eight Ash Green, in Fordham Heath, Colchester, then tried to overrule Parker and other governors insisting she was following the provisions of the Equality Act 2010.

"After the head told us about the plan to allow the pupil to transition, the school suddenly turned into a place where you did not even have the freedom to question things. I felt it was no longer a Christian place of grace and truth -- it was a place of oppression," Parker told the Mail.

The situation worsened when the Headteacher, acting on the advice of Bishop Cottrell and the Local Authority called in Mermaids--a radical transgender campaigning group.

In a training session delivered to staff and governors, 'Jan,' the representative from Mermaids warned that it would be a hate crime to use the wrong pronoun for a transgender child.

When Parker challenged the scientific and legal falsehoods in the presentation, he was silenced by Mrs. Ceri Daniels who told him: "It's training today, it's not time to share your viewpoints."

Distressed Christian parents who contacted VOL said they were shocked by the news in the media. "How can a Church of England school promote an ideology that is totalitarian and runs against biblical teaching in the very first chapter of Genesis?" a parent, who spoke on condition of anonymity, asked.

"The school says it is committed to 'safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the young people in our care and expect all members of the school community to share this commitment.' Such an act violates this assurance and destroys our faith in the school," the parent said.

"We support Mr. Parker wholeheartedly, but he has been silenced by a conspiracy involving the bishop, headteacher, and others who are pushing this ideology," the parent added.

The school had earlier introduced yoga classes, which upset some of the parents because of its roots in Hinduism.

In his resignation letter, Parker told the bishop that even Church of England schools were sacrificing children "on the altar of trans ideology."

Meanwhile, both the Diocese of Chelmsford and Holy Trinity Church of England School have refrained from making a statement on their website or twitter feed.

An audio recording of the presentation by Mermaids, secretly recorded by the vicar, has also been taken down from the original story reported in the Daily Mail, after Bishop Stephen Cottrell insisted on the recording being removed, sources revealed.

The conservative evangelical Church Society, the Evangelical Council of the Church of England and the Parochial Church Council of Parker's parish have not offered any public support to the Reverend Parker.

For another take on this developing story click here: https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/stalin-stalks-the-church-school-classrooms/

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