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From Guardian-
Rowan Williams has warned of the dangers of “messianic leadership” arising from disillusion in the political process, saying lessons need to be learned from Germany in the 1930s.
The former archbishop of Canterbury also said many Britons were peering into the abyss following last year’s Brexit referendum. Asked if the country was facing an existential crisis, he told the Guardian: “Yes … we’re certainly not a country at ease with itself.”
He called for a broad consensus on tackling long-term systemic issues facing the UK, such as inequality and alienation. “If we don’t [address these], the spring will coil tighter and tighter,” he said.
Williams, now master of Magdalene College, Cambridge and chair of Christian Aid, referred to a new edition of a 1943 book, Darkness Over Germany: a Warning from History, published this week, which charts the rise of fascism.More here-
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/21/rowan-williams-britons-are-peering-into-the-abyss-after-brexit-vote?CMP=fb_gu
From Baptist News-
Compared to Episcopalians and Presbyterians, Baptists store more of their treasure in heaven than on earth, according to a new comparison of household incomes of U.S. religious groups by the Pew Research Center.
The analysis of Pew’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study found highest incomes among Jewish and Hindu religions and the lowest for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Historically black denominations such as the National Baptist Convention and the Church of God in Christ rank near the bottom of the list with 9 percent of members earning $100,000 or more and nearly half less than $30,000.
More than half (53 percent) in American Baptist Churches USA, one of the most ethnically diverse religious bodies, have annual incomes below $30,000 while fewer than one in 10 (9 percent) pull down more than $100,000 a year.More here-
https://baptistnews.com/article/study-ranks-incomes-of-religious-groups/#.V_4Vs2OlUhY
From Nigeria-
Citing the biting hardship in the land, Anglican bishops have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare emergency on the economy to avert developments that might divide the country.
Speaking yesterday at Cathedral Church of St. Mary, Ngwo in Enugu North Council, the clerics, drawn from over 10 dioceses, urged government to immediately address the prevailing economic recession.
In a statement by by the provincial chairman and Archbishop of Enugu, Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma as well as secretary, Venerable Augustine Orah, the church lamented the national minimum wage, which could no longer afford a bag of rice.
More here-
http://allafrica.com/stories/201609140967.html
From The Telegraph-
One month on from the Brexit vote, and we’re doing fine. The fundamentals are unchanged: a strong economy, a cohesive society and, lest we forget, we haven’t actually left the EU yet. Despite this, some people still talk as though Britain detached itself from the Continent and sank into the ocean. They need to relax – open a beer and enjoy the sunshine. History suggests that ruptures in geopolitics can be the start of something beautiful.
Take the 16th-century Reformation. As a Catholic, I am duty-bound to say that Henry VIII’s divorce and the subsequent establishment of the Anglican Church was a disaster. The enormity of its changes – the abolition of the monasteries, sectarian conflict – dwarfs Brexit, implying that leaving the EU just isn’t the big deal that Remainers insist.
But the Reformation does have two characteristics that hold out hope for a brighter future in 2016: continuity and the unleashing of the English imagination.
More here-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/24/the-reformation-offers-a-good-lesson-for-brexit/
From The Church Times-
UNITY, hope, and generosity are the values needed to enable the country to emerge from the transition out of the EU “confident and successful”, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have said.
In a result that confounded last-minute expectations, 51.9 per cent of voters in the UK opted to leave the EU. The Archbishops joined other church leaders, many of whom had publicly expressed their intention to vote Remain, in calling for reconciliation.
“We must now unite in a common task to build a generous and forward-looking country, contributing to human flourishing around the world,” they said in a statement issued on Friday morning. “We must remain hospitable and compassionate, builders of bridges and not barriers.” [Full statement below].
People must support those from overseas who would now be feeling a “deep sense of insecurity” by offering “reassurance, by cherishing our wonderfully diverse society, and by affirming the unique contribution of each and every one”.
More here-
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2016/1-july/news/uk/church-leaders-seek-to-unite-divided-country
From Canterbury-
Archbishop Justin Welby and Archbishop John Sentamu have issued this joint statement today after the UK voted to leave the European Union:
On Thursday, millions of people from across the United Kingdom voted in the referendum, and a majority expressed a desire that Britain’s future is to be outside the European Union
The outcome of this referendum has been determined by the people of this country. It is now the responsibility of the Government, with the support of Parliament, to take full account of the outcome of the referendum, and, in the light of this, decide upon the next steps. This morning, the Prime Minister David Cameron has offered a framework for when this process might formally begin.
More here-
http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/5743/eu-referendum-statement-by-archbishops-of-canterbury-and-york
From Nigeria-
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State, Monday, urged religious leaders to intercede fervently for the country in bringing about greater economic prosperity, just as he tasked political leaders to prioritize the welfare of the masses.
Governor Ambode, who spoke while declaring open the 33rd Synod of the Lagos Diocese of Anglican Communion, held at the Our Saviour's Church, Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos, said the country was in dire need of God's blessings and prosperity at this critical point in time and the church has a great role to play.
The Governor expressed delight at the theme of the Synod which was to discuss the Ecclesiastical business vis-a-vis the role of the church in the country, saying the topic was apt and timely, especially at this trying period for the economy of the country.
More here-
http://allafrica.com/stories/201605030032.html
From Buffalo-
Nearly two dozen religious leaders gathered in Niagara Square Wednesday morning to join Mayor Byron W. Brown’s “Opportunity Pledge” encouraging a culture of diversity that supports economic diversity and equality in Buffalo.
Bishop Richard J. Malone of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo and R. William Franklin of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York were among the 21 religious leaders who signed the pledge following a short ceremony during which religious leaders from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim religions spoke.
The religious leaders talked about the importance of everyone in Buffalo benefiting as Buffalo’s economy grows, and also the larger symbolism attached to the pledge.
Malone spoke of a new level of hope occurring in Buffalo. “We want this new hope to be widely embraced,” he said.
More here-
http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/religious-leaders-sign-buffalos-opportunity-pledge-20150729
From The Church Times-
THE Prime Minister has issued a firm rebuttal of the picture of Britain painted by the Archbishop of Canterbury in which "many cities are left feeling abandoned and hopeless".
It is suggested by Archbishop Welby that entire regions of the country are trapped in an apparently inescapable economic downward spiral. He refers to "a tale of two cities", and argues that turning the tide will come only through a commitment to solidarity.
"The hard truth is that [many cities and towns where there is long-term decline] are in what appear to be lose-lose situations," he says. "Already in decline, the road towards recovery and growth is made even more difficult. . . As the south-east grows, many cities are left feeling abandoned and hopeless."
More here-
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2015/16-january/news/uk/c-of-es-pre-election-publication-warns-of-lose-lose-situations-for-many-towns-and-cities
From Marketplace-
Once during the roaring '90s, I was ushered into the high temple of Wall Street. You might be thinking Goldman Sachs, but its headquarters are near, but not on, Wall Street. The high temple of Wall Street is the big church that presides over the street’s high end, Trinity.
I was interviewing the Rev. Dan Matthews, the Episcopal priest who was, at the time, rector of Trinity. The topic was what we then called “socially responsible investment,” a way to apply an investor’s personal values to a portfolio. Trinity owns a lot of Manhattan real estate and I was curious if the parish screens its massive portfolio to be sure it doesn’t own securities in companies that do things the church finds morally repugnant.
Not really, came the answer. Matthews told me that his board of directors consisted of captains of Wall Street, and, try as he might, he could never get his vestry to agree on good versus bad companies (beyond their capacities to generate future profits). There was a strong view that it was the board’s fiduciary responsibility to make sure the church’s portfolio generated the best return. It was the job of priests and parishioners to then decide what good works could be done with the proceeds.
More here-
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/indie-economics/wall-street’s-inner-sanctum
From The LA Times-
The Rev. Steven Lawler, rector of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Ferguson, really saw the change in 2008, when visits to his food pantry soared. They haven't gone down since.
"I know there are places where an economic recovery's happening," he said. "But in the places where people are most stressed, there hasn't been a recovery."
Still, as Lawler and others note, Ferguson has some things going for it. Its pleasant, old downtown has seen a revival in recent years, with a busy Saturday farmers market and a new craft brewery. It still has middle-class neighborhoods of historic homes. The headquarters of a Fortune 500 company, Emerson Electric Co., sits on a serene campus just up the hill from the gas station that looters burned Sunday night.
more here-
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ferguson-economy-20140817-story.html#page=1
From Florida-
When a White House speechwriter turned in a draft of a major speech on economic policy this month, President Barack Obama sent it back with an unusual instruction: Add a reference to the pope.
The final version of the speech quoted directly from Pope Francis' recent letter to the faithful: "How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless per
son dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses 2 points?" he said.
The citation marked a notable development in Obama's complex and sometimes confrontational relationship with the Roman Catholic Church: After several years of high-profile clashes with U.S. bishops, Obama is seizing the chance to highlight common ground with the bishop of Rome.
Quoting the pope isn't likely to yield direct electoral dividends for Obama's party -- the once-vaunted "Catholic vote" largely disappeared long ago. But in a string of effusive praise, the president has made clear he sees the pope as a like-minded thinker and potentially useful ally in a crucial battle of ideas, particularly on the importance of shrinking the gulf between rich and poor, a subject Obama has pushed repeatedly but with limited success.Read more here:
http://www.bradenton.com/2013/12/27/4907390/president-obama-seizes-chance.html#storylink=cpy
From The Church Times-
TACKLING tax secrecy and avoidance should be top of the agenda for the G8 group of the world's wealthiest countries, when it meets in Northern Ireland next week, the Archbishop of Canterbury and his predecessor, Lord Williams of Oystermouth, have said.
The G8 leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United States, and the UK, are scheduled to meet at Lough Erne, in Northern Ireland, on Monday and Tuesday. The UK took on the one-year presidency of the group in January.
In a video message delivered to a rally in Hyde Park last Saturday, organised by the "Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign" ( News, 25 January), Archbishop Welby said: "The G8 is the centre of financial resource and power in all kinds of ways. . . One of the biggest issues we face is around how aid is used. The issues of tax transparency are increasingly at the top of the agenda, and are really, really important. . .More here-
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2013/14-june/news/uk/tax-and-malnutrition-should-top-g8-agenda,-say-clerics
From Christian Post-
Banks should be less about "inward-looking self-regard" and more about the common good, the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.
The Most Reverend Justin Welby was speaking on the subject of "Good Banks" in an address to around 1,500 people at St Paul's Cathedral in London on Wednesday night.
He said there was no such thing as a perfect bank but suggested there could be good banks that learn from their mistakes.
"There will never be such a thing as perfectly good banks because in the end no human being is of themselves perfectly good," he said.
"But we can have potentially good banks, banks that live with a culture that is self-correcting and self-learning, a culture that is more like a body than a system.Read more at
http://www.christianpost.com/news/banks-should-be-less-about-self-regard-more-about-common-good-says-worldwide-anglican-leader-97938/#Myprpab2ReBeFec8.99
From The Economist-
JUSTIN Welby, the new leader of nearly 80m Anglicans around the world, has won a respectful hearing for his ideas on banking and the British economy. Even if they disagree with the details, people have generally not reacted by saying "this man hasn't a clue what he is talking about" or "he should go back to singing hymns."
On April 21st, the archbishop of Canterbury suggested that big, unhealthy banks should be broken up into regional ones, as part of a "revolution in the aims" of banks designed to make sure that they served society as well as their own narrow interests. That sounded very like the proposal made last month by Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, for local lenders modelled on the German system. It comes at a time when the government faces hard decisions about the future of the Royal Bank of Scotland after its rescue by the tax-payer. Given the immediacy of the issue, some people will accuse the archbishop (who lists his hobbies as French culture, sailing and politics) of making narrow political points rather than broad moral ones.
But he also had some longer-term ideas on the financial sector. Drawing on his experience as a member of a parliamentary Banking Standards Commission, he said senior positions in banking ought to form a regulated profession which required qualifications. Partly because of the banking crisis, Britain had fallen not merely into a recession but a longer-term depression. "It therefore takes something very, very major to get us out of it," he told a meeting at Westminster organised by the Bible Society.
More here-
http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2013/04/anglican-leaders-ideas-mammon
From The Guardian-
The archbishop of Canterbury warned on Monday night that Britain was mired in an economic depression and called for major steps to drag the country out of it, including the breakup of a major bank in order to create regional lenders.
The proposal, which has echoes of a policy recently espoused by Labour, was contained in an address that marked one of Justin Welby's most significant forays into public policy since be was enthroned last month as the new leader of the Church of England.
Speaking just days before key GDP data is expected to show the economy remains stalled, Welby told a Westminster discussion on the financial crisis organised by the Bible Society: "Economic crises are a major problem when they are severe. When they are accompanied by a financial crisis and a breakdown in confidence then they become a generational problem.
"Historically, the great failures in banking have led to very, very long periods of recession at best. I would argue that what we are in at the moment is not a recession but essentially some kind of depression. It therefore takes something very, very major to get us out of it in the same way as it took something very major to get us into it."
More here-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/22/justin-welby-labour-regional-banks
From London-
The Archbishop of Canterbury has launched an attack on the growing inequality and fear gripping a “paranoid Britain”.
Dr Rowan Williams, who steps down as head of the Anglican church in December, said the yawning gap between rich and poor had brought “hopelessness” for those at the bottom and “anxiety” for those higher up the ladder. He said the lack of social cohesion in 21st-century Britain had been heightened by a sense of “corporate paranoia” after terrorist attacks and many people had “put up the shutters”.
In an interview with BBC’s Newsnight programme being broadcast tonight, the country’s most senior religious leader criticised a culture where people are becoming “fist-clenching, anxious, not generous”.
He said: “The gulf between the top and the bottom of the economic ladder has grown and is growing, that’s not something we really tackled.”
He said Britain should take inspiration from the works of Charles Dickens.
The central message of Dickens, he said, was that people must let go of the anxiety that comes from the acquisition of wealth.
More here-
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/uk/paranoid-uk-must-learn-from-dickens-says-archbishop-of-canterbury-7800168.html
From ENS-
The rector of Trinity Church, Wall Street, has issued an invitation to "Occupy Wall Street" protesters to make use of the congregation's facilities and staff for rest, revitalization and pastoral care.In a statement posted Oct. 5 on Trinity's website, the Rev. James H. Cooper, dean, invited the protesters to visit Charlotte's Place, a neighborhood center recently opened by the parish, and offered them the use of other meeting spaces for discussions on the issues driving the protests.Protesters have camped for the past several weeks in Zuccotti Park, located north of Trinity Church and south of the affiliated St. Paul’s Chapel."Trinity Wall Street respects the rights of citizens to protest peacefully and supports the vigorous engagement of the concerns that form the core of the protests – economic disenfranchisement and failure of public trust," Cooper wrote."As a prayerful community with a deep history of relationships in Lower Manhattan, Trinity continues its pastoral outreach and welcomes any of those involved in the ongoing situation to parish spaces. Many protestors have found the opportunity for rest and revitalization in Charlotte’s Place, Trinity’s new neighborhood center, and have expressed deep appreciation for the hospitality there. We welcome any of those involved in the protest for pastoral care and reflection.More here-
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80263_130081_ENG_HTM.htm
From ENS-
Forty years ago, then-Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop John Hines appeared at a General Motors stockholders meeting to ask the company to quit doing business in South Africa because of that country's policy of apartheid. Today, the church continues to make its voice heard in company boardrooms and in legislative chambers on issues of financial ethics and economic justice.Episcopalians in several states are battling what they say are predatory lending practices that perpetuate poverty. Various dioceses and the wider church also support investment opportunities such as credit unions, which offer alternatives to payday lenders and foster community development.Members of the church's Social Responsibility in Investments Committee, with the approval of Executive Council, routinely file stockholder proxies to be voted on at corporations' annual meetings and meet with company representatives on issues ranging from diversifying boards to stopping mountaintop removal in Appalachian mining. And the Episcopal Network for Economic Justice provides education and advocacy on a range of issues, from community investing to employment practices, immigration and health care.More here-
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_128895_ENG_HTM.htm
From Philadelphia-
What is the dollar value of a marriage saved? A suicide averted? An addiction conquered? A teenager taught right from wrong?In short: What is a church's economic worth to the community it serves?Last summer, a University of Pennsylvania professor and a national secular research group based in Center City took up that seemingly unanswerable question. With a list they devised of 54 value categories, they attempted to calculate the economic "halo effect" of a dozen religious congregations in Philadelphia - 10 Protestant churches, a Catholic parish, and a synagogue.They added up the money generated by weddings and funerals, festivals, counseling programs, preschools, elder care. They tallied the salaries of staff and the wages of roofers, plumbers, even snow shovelers. They put dollar signs on intangibles, too, such as helping people find work and teaching children to be socially responsible.More here-
http://articles.philly.com/2011-02-01/news/27092987_1_partners-for-sacred-places-congregations-churches
From Guardian-
