For the first time, a Church of England Tribunal rendered a decision finding Rev. Dr. Stephen Sizer guilty of  “conduct unbecoming to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders ” based on claims he engaged in antisemitic activity and Holocaust denial. The vicar was, in fact, guilty of virulently anti-Israel activity and accused Christian Zionists of antisemitism for not converting Jews to Christianity.

The Tribunal concluded that Dr. Sizer “pushed the boundaries beyond what was acceptable conduct, and [engaged in] antisemitic activity when he knew, [what] he was posting was virulently antisemitic“.

According to the Daily Mail, it was the first time in the board’s 260-year history that it filed a complaint against a church member.

The Tribunal chair David Pittaway KC said the question was “not whether the Respondent thought that the behavior should be described as such but whether the Tribunal finds the behavior to be antisemitic.“

A penalty hearing will need to take place in the future to determine the punishment.

A complaint was initially lodged against Sizer with the Church of England in 2012 and charges were brought by Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews in October 2018 to the head of his Diocese, the Bishop of Winchester, who referred him to the ecclesiastical hearing. Tribunals are normally held in private, but Sizer exercised his right for the hearing to be held in public with the media having access. 

Van der Zyl praised the Tribunal’s “unprecedented judgment” in a statement:

“I am grateful to the Tribunal for accepting the evidence of the Board of Deputies,” she wrote. “The Board will always act to defend and protect the Jewish community. ”

The tribunal was presented with 11 cases of Sizer’s antisemitic acts. The complaint stated in part: “we will not remain quiet in the face of actions and remarks capable of being seen as antisemitic even where they are disguised as anti-Zionist attacks on Israel.”

Out of the 11 allegations, a panel concluded that in four of them Sizer’s conduct was “unbecoming to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders, in that he provoked and offended the Jewish community.”

Sizer denied the claims of antisemitism and misconduct arguing his actions were against the state of Israel rather than the Jews.

Sizer, a Conservative Evangelical and the former vicar of the Anglican parish of Christ Church in Surrey, has been suspended from his ministry since 2018. He is critical of Christian Zionism. Sizer says that Christian Zionism has no biblical foundation or historical precedent.

On the ‘Unbelievable’ program on Premier Christian Radio1 on 6 December 2008, Sizer claimed that Christian Zionists are antisemitic because they do not actively engage in converting Jews to Christianity.

The charges included the following, though many more instances can be found on the internet of his antisemitic and anti-Israel statements:

• Sizer attended a conference run by the Iran-backed Islamic Human Rights Commission in 2005.
• He also admitted to having met a senior Hezbollah commander Sheikh Kaouk in 2006, claiming that he “advised” him that Hezbollah should release captured Israeli soldiers.
• In 2008,he appeared alongside Fred Tobin, an alleged Holocaust denier, at a conference in Indonesia. Two representatives also attended the event.
• Sizer was accused in 2012 of linking from his Facebook profile to an article on an anti-Jewish American site espousing Holocaust denial. 
• In 2014, Sizer attended the “Second New Horizon Conference” in Tehran in which anti-Israel conspiracy theories were promoted. Sizer justified his presence, saying it was anti-Israel and not antisemitic.
• In 2015, he posted a link to Facebook accusing Jews and Israel of responsibility for the 9/11 attacks in the United States. He also posted to Facebook an item claiming former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was a victim of “the hidden hands of Zionism”.
• He was consequently banned by the diocese from using social media for six months but, according to the tribunal, still continued to make “deeply offensive” and “unpleasant” antisemitic pronouncements.
• In March 2010, Sizer posted photographs on Flickr of Israeli soldiers on his public web pages under the title “Herod’s Soldiers Operating in Bethlehem Today”, equating the IDF activities with an episode in the New Testament known as the Massacre of the Innocents.