Mr Robinson has been training for ordination at St Stephen’s College in Oxford (Image: )
Mr Robinson, a former teacher and well known right of centre political commentator, has been training for ordination at St Stephen’s College in Oxford and was supposed to begin a curacy in Holborn later this year. But senior clergy in London including the Bishop of London Sarah Mullally have taken exception to his criticism of woke culture and other conservative comments on social media and blocked the original plan.
Mr Robinson has told the Sunday Express that he has consulted a barrister about possibly taking the Church of England to court over the issue arguing that he and others are facing prejudice for “having orthodox conservative opinions.”
He said: “The problem is that there is a disconnect between the Church of England hierarchy who are increasingly woke Guardian readers, and the congregations who are mostly Daily Express and Daily Mail reading conservatives.
“I am much closer to the grassroots, I tend to read the Express and the Mail and I am willing to stand up for those orthodox Christian opinions against things like trying to allow gay weddings, rebaptisms for trans people and the like.”
The original plan was for Mr Robinson to be a part time curate and continue his media work on GB News and elsewhere.
He said: “I felt that the media work was part of my calling and future ministry so the two were not separable.”
However, at a Zoom meeting on February 25, the Bishop of Fulham Jonathan Baker who was his sponsor told him that he “needed to make a choice” and warned that it would be too difficult to do both because of complaints which were being made about him.
A few hours later the Bishop of Fulham emailed the Bishop of London to say that Mr Robinson’s curacy in Holborn had been cancelled.
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This followed months of email exchanges between the Bishops of London, Fulham and Edmonton (Rob Wickham), who had previously been Mr Robinson’s sponsor until he had a change of heart on the issue of women priests, raising issues about Tweets posted by Mr Robinson.
A number of complaints from unnamed individuals who, according to documents seen by the Sunday Express, were sometimes on first name terms with the Bishop of London’s secretary, were raised against Mr Robinson.
One point of contention was Mr Robinson objecting on Twitter to another ordinand Jarel Robinson-Brown’s attack on Captain Tom Moore.
Jarel Robinson-Brown, who has been allowed to go ahead with a planned curacy in Aldgate, said of the Second World War veteran who became an inspiration during the pandemic lockdown: “‘The cult of Captain Tom is a cult of white British nationalism.”
Amid wide condemnation for the attack on Tom Moore, Mr Robinson Tweeted asking him if he was racist now using a phrase from a Fr Ted episode.
But the bishops sided with Jarel Robinson-Brown.
The Bishop of Edmonton wrote to the Bishop of London describing Mr Robinson’s Tweet as “concerning”.
Another was over his criticism of the Church’s report where it concluded it was “institutionally racist”.
St. Pauls Cathedral (Image: Getty)
When the head of media shared a Tweet by Mr Robinson criticising the report, the Bishop of London replied: “Probably got it right then!”
In another email to a complainant, the Bishop of London said: “As you rightly say, Calvin’s Tweets fall below the standards expected of someone training for ordination.” The Bishop of Edmonton also made it clear that he was opposed to Mr Robinson’s ordination over his comments.
In an email in December to the Bishop of London highlighting Mr Robinson’s views on immigration, institutional racism and other areas, he said: “These are clear examples as to why, in my opinion, his ordination should be looked at very closely indeed.”
Among the issues complained about were Mr Robinson publicly arguing for churches to remain open during the pandemic, criticising the Church of England’s role in bapitising illegal migrants to help- them stay in the UK, and criticising a report commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury which concluded that the Church is institutionally racist.
The issue came to a head in December when Mr Robinson, who is black, met the Bishop of London, who is white, in December where she insisted that the Church is institutionally racist in a wide ranging discussion about his Tweets.
Previously the matter had even been raised by the three bishops with the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby with concerns raised that Mr Robinson has more than 150,000 twitter followers.
The Diocese’s senior media officer Ben Frankell even helped draft a press release with them on March 3 to explain why his planned ordination would not go ahead even though Mr Robinson has still not been officially informed it had been cancelled.
Meanwhile, Mr Robinson claims that dozens of letters, emails and social media responses of support for his evangelisation and ministry have been ignored by the Church of England bishops. These include: “You are an inspiration and thank you for protecting Christianity.”
Another said: “Thank you so much Calvin for promoting our Christian values.”
Another messaged: “You’re doing a brilliant job Calvin, speaking out against race baiting and whacky woke stuff. And also speaking in a positive way about Christianity and the church. Keep speaking – many are behind you.”
Another said after hearing Mr Robinson: “I’ve picked up a Bible for the first time in my life. I’ve been reading for two months now without missing a day.”
When the Sunday Express asked for a response from the Diocese of London they sent an edited version of the statement agreed on March 3. A spokesman for the Diocese of London said: “In the Diocese of London, we have a limited number of curacies available each year that are considered on a case-by-case basis.
“We work with and support Ordinands throughout the discernment process to establish the right path for each person. In this instance, it was felt that there was no suitable option available that London could offer.
“Calvin continues to be a candidate sponsored for ordination. We continue to be willing to work with him to discern the right way forward, and we keep him in our prayers.”
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