Christians are being asked to pray as the Employment Appeal Tribunal hears the case of sacked chaplain Rev Dr Bernard Randall.
Dr Randall lost his job at Trent College, Nottinghamshire - a school with a Church of England ethos - six years ago after preaching a sermon in the chapel in which he said that pupils did not have to agree with LGBT ideology.
In addition to losing his job, he was reported by the college to Prevent, the government's terrorism prevention scheme.
Since then, he has been cleared by Prevent, the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), and the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA), which all found that he had no case to answer.
Despite this, he remains blacklisted from ministry by the Church of England which deemed him to be "a safeguarding risk to children", despite his sermon being in line with the Church's official doctrine. He has not been allowed to return to preaching in the intervening time.
Dr Randall said: “This has been six years of silence, shame, and spiritual exile. I have been punished not for wrongdoing, but for believing.
"The Church’s safeguarding process has become a tool of coercion, not care. I am speaking out now because I know I am not alone, and because no one should suffer in silence for staying true to their faith.”
Dr Randall lost his original Employment Tribunal case challenging his sacking, but in March this year, Judge James Tayler ruled that the verdict was "unsafe" due to concerns about anti-Christian bias on the presiding panel. The judge ordered a full retrial and £20,000 in costs against Trent College.
Dr Randall is being supported in his appeal by lawyers from Christian Concern, which said, "The toll on Bernard has been severe."
It is asking for prayers for "justice" and that "good would triumph".
"Bernard has been cleared by every other (secular) agency because there is no safeguarding case for him to even answer," it said.
"But all these years later, the Church is still ludicrously saying that he remains a risk because of what he might say in future sermons."
Christian Concern called upon the Church of England leadership to "repent of their treatment of him and restore him to ministry".
"No one should have to go through what Bernard has gone through. But we know that God can work all things together for good; so pray that Bernard’s steadfast faith would encourage and inspire more Christians to be unashamed of the gospel," it said.
A Christian Concern petition demanding that Dr Randall be restored to ministry has been signed by over 11,000 people.
"The Church’s treatment of Bernard raises questions over whether any minister who holds to Biblical views about marriage and sexuality has a future in the denomination. If he can be treated like this, so can anyone," the petition reads.
The Association of Christian Teachers (ACT) is among Dr Randall's supporters. It recently called for freedom to disagree in education, both for teachers and students.
"Dr Randall’s sermon was not persuading children to alter their stance on LGBT issues. It was suggesting that if, (through religious conviction or other reasoning), there was a disconnect between their own stance and the position of the group delivering training, that there is freedom to disagree," the ACT said.
"That some progressive ideas are too fragile even to be questioned is revealing. It is deeply concerning that children are being compelled to think in a certain way, with no freedom to express curiosity or respectfully dissent. This is indoctrination, not education."
