Where the Church stands

Corporate and investor responsibility is a key issue for Christians who believe in an incarnate God working in our world. As Christians we accept responsibility to work for a just society marked by love, compassion and peace.

Justice requires that we stand with those oppressed by poverty and exploitation and work to change structures, policies and practices that support oppression.

The Church has a long-standing concern with social, economic and ethical questions such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and fair employment conditions. In addition, the Industrial Mission movement  - which played a key role in the formation of ECCR - has for many years supported the appointment of industrial chaplains, linking faith and social action, and educating the churches in the realities of the workplace.

The Methodist Church began to invest ethically in the 1920s, followed by the Quakers (Religious Society of Friends) and other denominations. The Church of England’s ethical investment policy dates to 1948.

The Church’s engagement with multinational companies strengthened during the campaign against apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s, and the UK's first ethical unit trust was launched.

Many denominations are members of the Church Investors Group, which relaunched in 2004.

The Church is also active in international development, though the work of agencies such as Christian Aid and CAFOD. The human rights and livelihoods of local communities in the global South may be undermined by the activities of Northern multinational companies.

The Church therefore has an important task in ensuring that its investments in companies are consistent with the mission of its development organisations.

As a worldwide community, the Church is well placed to bring together the perspectives of people affected locally by the activities of multinational companies with those of the board room and of investors and investment managers.

Faith-based investor action has a key role in the churches, and in partnership with others, in protecting the integrity of Creation.

Church policy on ethical and responsible investment

• The Church of England Ethical Investment Advisory Group
• The Church in Wales ethical investment policy statement
• The Methodist Church Joint Advisory Committee on the Ethics of Investment
• The Church Investors Group