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A Statement on the Revd Stephen Sizer by the Bishop of Guildford

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Kendall Harmon

“The Diocese of Guildford has taken extremely seriously the reports and complaints regarding Stephen Sizer over the past two weeks. Concerns surrounding Stephen were raised both in response to allegedly offensive materials linked from his Facebook account, and to comments he made to the Jewish News and the Daily Telegraph thereafter.

“Commenting on this matter, the Council of Christians and Jews has helpfully highlighted that:

”˜It is perfectly possible to criticize Israeli policies without such criticism being anti-Semitic, and Christians and others should feel free to do so. However, such legitimate criticism must not be used as a cloak for anti-Semitism, nor can anti-Semitism itself ever be disguised as mere political comment’.

“Having now met Stephen, in my brand new role as Bishop of Guildford, I do not believe that his motives are anti-Semitic; but I have concluded that, at the very least, he has demonstrated appallingly poor judgment in the material he has chosen to disseminate, particularly via social media, some of which is clearly anti-Semitic.

Read it all.

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4 comments on “A Statement on the Revd Stephen Sizer by the Bishop of Guildford”

  1. Pageantmaster Ù† says:
    February 9, 2015 at 9:25 pm

    A good and wise statement.

  2. Pageantmaster Ù† says:
    February 10, 2015 at 12:38 am

    He’s awfully good at this. Do you think he was a prefect in a former life?

  3. Pageantmaster Ù† says:
    February 10, 2015 at 2:38 am

    I see the Board of Deputies of British Jews has issued the following Statement:

    Board welcomes Church’s swift action over Sizer
    February 9th, 2015

    Jonathan Arkush, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, has welcomed the actions of the Diocese of Guildford following a Facebook posting by Rev Stephen Sizer linking Israel and the Jews to the 9/11 attacks, which was revealed in a Jewish News report.

    The Diocese has banned Rev Sizer from using any social media for six months and Rev Sizer has himself pledged not to write tweet or blog about the Middle East again.

    Mr Arkush said: “The Board referred these matters regarding Rev Sizer to the Diocese of Guildford who have acted swiftly to resolve them. The Board has expressed its full acknowledgment of the undertakings asked of Rev Sizer and their implications and we are grateful that the Church shared our deep concern that Rev Sizer had indeed crossed a line in the offensive materials he was posting and linking to online. The Board of Deputies now hopes that Rev Sizer’s unbecoming and inappropriate conduct has now been brought to a close. The Board together with the Diocese of Guildford and the Church of England strongly believe that good community relations are based on mutual respect and trust, which we now hope can be restored after this very unhappy episode.”

  4. MichaelA says:
    February 11, 2015 at 6:48 am

    Wow, yes PM I agree. This is reminiscent of some of Richard Chartres’ interventions on clergy discipline – direct, fair, not pejorative, not overstated, but very firm.