Nick Baines writes on his blog about Same world, different worlds.
Yesterday I linked to Sam Macrory’s interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury for Total Politics: Archbishop’s Move: Can Welby restore faith in the church?. But it wasn’t just about payday lenders; do read it all.
Ian Ellis of the Church of Ireland Gazette interviewed Bishop Nigel Stock on the subject of Women in the Episcopate legislation, during the July 2013 York meeting of the Church of England General Synod.
Andrew Brown writes in The Guardian about Welby, Wonga and the moral dilemma of financial investments.
Giles Fraser writes in The Guardian: Thank God we have an archbishop who views Wonga’s loans as modern slavery.
Whilst I applaud Justin Welby’s stand against a vicious and parasitical “industry”, I have a strong suspicion that the Church will not rise to the challenge, except in a few places. Even in the late Victorian heyday of credit unions, credit unions only had a modest local success. We also need to clarify what is or isn’t usury. In the early modern period interest rates were capped as follows: 10% from 1545-1552, and from 1571-1624; 8% from 1624-1651; 6% from 1651-1713; and 5% from that point until abolition in 1854 (by which time the law had long been a dead… Read more »
In spite of the embarrassment caused by the CofE ‘s Wonga investment Archbishop Welby seems to have received a mostly favourable Press coverage for standing up for the Poor against the wicked loan sharks . Like Pope Francis he has the Poor at heart. Our Lord would approve. Hopefully as visible unity now seems a far distant prospect because of certain obstacles – the two Churches can co-operate in a joint initiative towards the eradication of poverty. When Justin meets Francis again at the Vatican in December – let us hope for great things to result from the meeting.
I too commend the Archbishop for his efforts, and wish we had more hierarchs and religious leaders here in the USA willing to publicly take on those forces that keep the poor in their poverty, and who profit off the misery of so many people.
“I too commend the Archbishop for his efforts, and wish we had more hierarchs and religious leaders here in the USA willing to publicly take on those forces that keep the poor in their poverty, and who profit off the misery of so many people.”
Have you tuned into the Episcopal Policy Network? TEC holds a lot of great positions. General Convention passed a resolution to create a credit union, seemingly like Welby is proposing.
Some thoughts after considering this briefly. (I may blog about it later today if there’s time.) For short-term lending, the CofE is in a good position to lend, as it’s a relatively wealthy (we’ll assume), non-profit, with local structures embedded in the community. It could provide small, short-term loans at lower interest than pay-day lenders, because it need not make a profit. So far so good. But there are some borrowers who use the loans over longer periods (whom the media focus on). For them, there are two alternatives. If payday lenders go out of business (Archbishop Welby’s goal), they’ll… Read more »