Episcopal Press and News

Campaign Links Churches to Arms Trade Investments

Episcopal News Service. April 2, 1998 [98-2135C]

(ENI) Fifteen dioceses in the Church of England have been linked by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) to investments in companies that export armaments. In addition to the dioceses, where shares are held in the name of either the diocesan cathedrals or the diocesan boards of finance, two Church of England central funding bodies have also been linked by CAAT to arms-exporting companies. The Church Commissioners have more than $50 million invested in two of Britain's leading arms-related companies, GEC and GKN, while CCLA Investment Management, formerly the church's Central Board of Finance, has invested more than $24 million in the same two companies. The list has been published as part of CAAT's "Clean Investment Campaign," which seeks to persuade public bodies -- especially local authorities, health authorities and religious organizations -- to withdraw any investments they have in arms-exporting companies. Paul Flynn, a Labor Party member of the British Parliament and a long-standing campaigner against the arms trade, said churches should see themselves as "in a class of their own" in avoiding arms-related companies. "This is hardly the way to serve the prince of peace, " he said. "Nor is it the church's responsibility to invest in the defense of the realm." A spokesperson for the Church Commissioners said, "We continually ask questions to satisfy ourselves about companies in sensitive areas, and defense-related production is not the main business of either GEC or GKN. In any case, production is mostly directed at supplying the UK armed forces and its NATO allies. We have no difficulty with the defense of the realm and peace-keeping activities."