Simon Barrow, co-director of the thinktank Ekklesia, which has urged churches to take a larger view of their economic commitments, commented in relation to the new Methodist Church policy statement:
“Steps towards improving investment policies and practices according to ethical guidance and the promotion of corporate responsibility are clearly to be welcomed.
“However, church bodies can and should go much further.
“Rather than operating an essentially ‘harm reduction’ policy, they need to be finding ways of making their resources work for good by directly investing in public benefit, environmental change and alternative economic mechanisms.”
* More about the Methodist policy: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/18805