More Religious Hypocrisy

The Church of England has admitted it is struggling to sell its investment in Wonga because it could lose up to £9m in a disposal. The admission comes almost a year after the archbishop of Canterbury, pledged to sell the Church's indirect holding in the payday lender, which he said "destroyed" lives. 'The Church, which last summer promised to "compete Wonga out of existence" but was a day later revealed to be an investor, said on Friday that it may not be able to sell its stake for "some considerable time". (Guardian, 23 May) On a Sunday morning the archbishop will wax eloquent about "blessed are the poor" and the old story about a rich man having as much difficulty entering heaven as a camel getting through the eye of a needle, but he wont reveal that the Church Commissioners manage £6.1bn of church assets and they are concerned that an early disposal of Wonga got set them back £9m. RD