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LONDON - Britain's Jewish community representative organization has taken the unprecedented step of lodging a formal complaint to the Church of England, the country's officially established Christian church, accusing one of its clergyman of anti-Semitism.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews has accused Rev. Stephen Sizer, the vicar of Virginia Water Church in Surrey and an ardent anti-Israel campaigner, of making anti-Semitic statements and republishing anti-Semitic material.
The action comes at a time when the relationship between the Jewish community and the Church of England has taken a downward turn, following its decision in July to strengthen ties with an anti-Israel group.
According to the board's vice-president, Jonathan Arkush, Sizer has made statements that the board and most of the Jewish community find utterly offensive, to the point of crossing the line into anti-Semitism.
The representative organization lodged the complaint under the Church of England's disciplinary process, an act of parliament known as the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003.
Submitting the complaint on behalf of the board, Arkush said, "The evidence disclosed indicates that Rev. Sizer spends time trawling dark and extreme corners of the Internet."
"Rev. Sizer republishes items to support the target of his polemical writing, while at the same time introducing his readers to the racist and anti-Semitic websites from where he draws his material," he added.
The complaint cites...