This is a guest post by John Bevan
In my post of 15 March (“Is Stephen Sizer taking Bishop Andrew Watson for a fool?”), I commented on Bishop Andrew Watson’s response to Stephen Sizer’s breaches of his 2015 agreement. That response, which can be seen here, stated that “[Dr Sizer] will also desist from all use of social media until his retirement takes effect.”
According to my Twitter feed, the Bishop’s statement was released no later than 5:29 a.m. on 10 March.
The screengrab which I reproduced in my post suggests that Rev Sizer published a post on Facebook at 10:21 p.m. on 10 March. This would clearly have been in breach of his Bishop’s request for him to desist from all use of social media.
However, another screengrab has now come to light, which appears to show that Rev Sizer published the post at 11:21 a.m. on 10 March:
The discrepancy in the time shown on the different screengrabs can be explained by the fact that they were taken from the profiles of Facebook users operating in different time zones.
Nevertheless, the second screengrab still appears to show that Rev Sizer published on Facebook after the apparent release of the Bishop’s statement – which, according to my Twitter feed, was at 5:29 a.m. on 10 March. However, I had not taken into account the fact that my Twitter account is set up according to Pacific Time, which is 7 hours behind GMT.
Therefore, I cannot prove that Rev Sizer published the Facebook post after he had been spoken to by his Bishop. As a result, I have pulled my piece of 15 March, which suggested just that.
This does not change my opinion that, in putting Rev Sizer on garden leave for five weeks before allowing him a final farewell with his congregation on Easter Sunday, Bishop Watson has been particularly lenient.
PS According to the Facebook user “Harriet S Place” (guess which blog s/he dislikes), my mistake is evidence that:
“someone at the [Board of Deputies] had a copy of the press release BEFORE the Bishop’s statement was published and Sizer was informed … So, we can surmise that Harry’s Place is the mouthpiece of the Board of Deputies… It’s all spin folks. I’ve always said they achieve influence and domination through bribery or blackmail. I’m expanding that to include extortion…”
Since “Harriet’s” Facebook friends include (among others) Stephen Sizer himself, Jackie Walker, Jenny Tonge and Paul Eisen, his/her specious line of “anti-Zionist” conspiracy theory is unsurprising.
