Church of England press release
Church Commissioners fund posts 5% return in 2022 despite challenging markets
London, 25 May 2023: The Church Commissioners for England, which manages the Church of England’s endowment fund, delivered a 5% return in 2022, a robust performance in the face of challenging market conditions.
“Our aim is to support the mission and ministry of the Church of England through providing as much funding as we can on a sustainable basis, year in, year out, come rain or shine – and achieving these returns in a year of double-digit inflation, an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is truly a testament to the skill and dedication of our investment professionals,” said Alan Smith, First Church Estates Commissioner. “As a result of our consistent strong returns over the long-term, we were able in 2022 to announce an increase in our distributions to the Church to £1.2bn over the next three years, a 30% increase over the previous three-year period.”
“Our focus on the long-term and genuinely diversified approach allowed us to be resilient in the face of strong economic headwinds in 2022, said Tom Joy, Chief Investment Officer. “Considering that equity and fixed income markets were under considerable stress, this is a very creditable result – and marks the fourteenth consecutive year of positive returns.”
The Church Commissioners 2022 results are published in its Annual Report.
The Church Commissioners for England manages the endowment fund of the Church of England in a responsible and ethical way. The portfolio is truly diversified across a broad range of asset classes to mitigate risk, and assets are invested with a long-term outlook. This approach has enabled the Church Commissioners to deliver an average annual return of 10.2% over the last ten years.
There will no doubt be many comments on the figures. This is just to draw the reader’s attention to the table on page 115 which is part of note 16. For the first time last year (so far as I can tell) the Commissioners made an assumption that future stipend increases would be less than the rate of retail price inflation. This assumption remains in place this year and in fact the gap looks to have widened slightly.
Many thanks. I have to wonder whether the rather less impressive returns this year are due in part to the massive losses in the bond markets in the second half of 2022 as interest rates rose. If that is the case, it suggests that this year may also prove troubling as interest rates are either held steady or rise (the Bank trying to recover credibility in the face of persistently high inflation). I also note that the Commissioners have some overseas investments, apparently in bonds, and query whether some of that debt might fall into distress as the Fed funds… Read more »
If interst rates rise long term bond rates fall. But if that is the explanation here it is probably a good thing. Many of the Commissioners liabilities concern the payment of regular income and if interest rates rise then a fall in capital values seems not to be a problem? The investments are doing what they were bought to do.
Of course, if the Commissioners had sold all their bonds before the rise they could have bought back even more bonds later, but such a strategy would have been too high a risk.
Simply thank you from a grateful pensioner
Might you be even more grateful if The Commissioners just chipped in a bit from their considerable profits towards the pension accrued for service post 1998? As I understand it, eventually they won’t be contributing to any clergy pensions except bishops and some relatively few lay staff. That doesn’t feel right.
I wonder if we are seeing the outplaying of a deliberate policy in which the CC allows parishes, and therefore dioceses, to become insolvent, with ordinary clergy and their pensions (funded by parishes not CC) unpaid, so that the CC can then save the day with an accompanying imposition of “if we’re paying you’ll do things our way”.