Disgraced vicar banned for 12 years
Stephen Sizer was found guilty of ‘antisemitic activity’
▶ AN ANGLICAN priest has been given a 12-year ban from ministering after being found guilty of sharing “virulently antisemitic” material online.
Ex-vicar Stephen Sizer, 69, was found by a church tribunal on Tuesday to have engaged in conduct “unbecoming to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders”.
The Archbishop of Canterbury said his behaviour had given “encouragement to conspiracy theories and tropes”.
The Bishop’s Disciplinary Tribunal for the Diocese of Winchester ruled in December that he had “provoked and offended the Jewish community” and “engaged in antisemitic activity”.
The case had been brought by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which cited 11 examples of antisemitism between 2005 and 2018.
The tribunal upheld four of the complaints, including one from
2015 when Sizer shared an article promoting conspiracy theories that Israel was behind the terrorist attacks against the US on 11 September 2001. Marie van der Zyl, President of the Board of Deputies, told the JC: “I am pleased that the tribunal has made an unambiguous statement in banning Stephen Sizer [who] indulged in ‘antisemitic activity’ and caused grievous offence to the Jewish community over a number of years.
“I am grateful to the tribunal for hearing our evidence and look forward to a continued strong and close relationship with the Church of England in the coming years.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said: “It’s clear that the behaviour of Stephen Sizer has undermined Christian-Jewish relations, giving encouragement to conspiracy theories and tropes that have no place in public Christian ministry and the church. “I renew my call for the highest possible standards among ordained ministers of the Church of England in combatting antisemitism of all kinds.” Sizer’s promotion of the idea that Israel was behind the September 11 attacks, posting an article entitled: ‘9/11: Israel did it’ in 2015, was labelled “virulently antisemitic”, fulfilling “all the tropes of antisemitism” by the tribunal.
In another, similar post in September 2010, Sizer shared a link to an article entitled “The Mother of All Coincidences”, which pushed the conspiracy theory that 9/11 was an Israeli plot. In that case, the tribunal found his conduct was unbecoming and inappropriate, but concluded this was not antisemitic activity. It said an ordained minister should not have given “the oxygen of publicity” to such an article. In 2006, Sizer had met “senior Hezbollah commander” Sheikh Nabil Kaouk in Lebanon. The tribunal decided it was “unacceptable” for an ordained minister to make the “unauthorised visit”. It found Sizer’s conduct unbecoming and inappropriate in that he provoked and offended the Jewish community.
In respect of seven further allegations, the tribunal found the case against Sizer, vicar of Christ Church Virginia Water in Surrey for 20 years until 2017, was not proved.
These included claims of antisemitisic conduct for taking part in a range of events where other attendees included Holocaust denier Fred Tobin and antisemitic conspiracy theorist Michael Hoffman.
He was also accused over a Facebook post that claimed former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was a victim of “the hidden hands of Zionism”. Sizer was also criticised for being “disingenuous in his answers”.
Speaking in his defence at the tribunal, Sizer claimed his views had been “routinely misrepresented and distorted” and that he “repeatedly and unequivocally repudiated racism, antisemitism and Holocaust denial”.
Sizer, who was suspended in 2018 pending the outcome of the hearing, chose to hold his tribunal in public in a bid to clear his name, arguing that his actions were political and aimed at the state of Israel, not Jewish people.
The former vicar admitted the “factual basis” of all allegations against him but disputed that his conduct was unbecoming or inappropriate and denied provoking and offending the Jewish community and/or engaging in antisemitic activity.
Sizer’s ban, which includes the time he has served since the original complaint in 2018, will last until December 2030. Sizer has been approached for comment.