SIZER TRIBUNAL STATEMENT
Statement from Revd Nick Howard and James Mendelsohn on the Sizer Tribunal
At long last, the Church of England has found Stephen Sizer guilty of engaging in antisemitic activity. Nevertheless, it grieves us greatly that evangelical leaders have known for more than a decade about his antisemitic conduct and yet time after time have looked the other way.
It’s as if three groups have been visiting the same park: conservative evangelicals, the CofE hierarchy, and British Jews. A member of the conservative evangelical group begins dumping rubbish among the Jews: half-eaten ham sandwiches, shellfish remains, dirty nappies, etc. This happens repeatedly for years. Eventually, tired of waiting for the conservative evangelicals to stop a conservative evangelical’s behaviour, the Jewish group enlists the help of the CofE hierarchy. The process is expensive and time-consuming, but eventually the rubbish-dumper is banned from the park. By the end, both the other groups have good reason to view the conservative evangelicals with disgust.
Among evangelicals who failed to act against Dr Sizer, Revd William Taylor of St Helen’s Bishopsgate stands out. In 2015, Dr Sizer was publicly rebuked by his bishop for promoting material described by the bishop as ‘clearly antisemitic’ and ‘openly racist’. Revd Taylor was urged to take action in response (at that time he led a committee that could have excluded Dr Sizer’s church from the South East Gospel Partnership), but he chose instead to tolerate racism, sticking to the position he first expressed in 2012: ‘I personally see no justifiable grounds for breaking gospel partnership with Stephen.’ We believe tolerating racism is inexcusable. Imagine that Revd Taylor had tolerated sexual sin by a leader later disciplined by the CofE for that sin. Would the churchwardens of St Helen’s want him to continue as Rector? Why should his toleration of racism be treated differently?
In our view, the following organisations should each apologise to the Jewish community for their failure to respond rightly to Dr Sizer’s antisemitic activity: the Gospel Partnerships network; Evangelicals Now (which for ten years resisted appeals to give the scandal due attention); Church Society (whose director, Revd Dr Lee Gatiss, privately indicated his support for Dr Sizer when his antisemitic conduct was a national news story in 2015, and then later claimed ignorance); St Helen’s Bishopsgate (whose Rector, Revd Taylor, brushed aside all of Dr Sizer’s offences – even his attempt to divert church money to a group funding anti-Israel terrorists!); ReNew (which chose to accept Dr Sizer’s application to attend its 2017 conference, without requiring any expression of repentance); and Christ Church Virginia Water (which stood by Dr Sizer while he was its vicar, despite all his racist acts, and continued to endorse him and fund his activities after he retired). Additionally, Above Bar Church (the FIEC-affiliated church that Dr Sizer now attends) should discipline him for his refusal to acknowledge and repent of his antisemitic activity.
Racism is a grievous sin. It breaks the second great commandment: that we should love our neighbour as ourselves (Mark 12:31). This particular case of racism is not yet closed. Among other steps that need to be taken, if Christ Church Virginia Water fails to apologise unreservedly, the Gospel Partnerships network must exclude it; and if Above Bar Church fails to discipline Dr Sizer, the FIEC must clarify whether or not the toleration of racism is grounds for disaffiliation. We also think it’s essential for St Helen’s Bishopsgate to publicly address the serious matters raised in our articles ‘Taylor, Sizer & Hamas’ and ‘Twelve Months Later’ (see soulinformation.org/blog). The time is long overdue for British evangelical leaders to give racism the attention it deserves.