Financial accountability is more than an audit exercise.
One of the principal purposes of the General Synod is to discuss the report of the Representative Body – the Church’s exchequer, which oversees investment and trusts. The report of the RB is tersely economic in its descriptions of the extremely difficult and ongoing scenario which is affecting international finances and various aspects of the RB’s remit.
This week in which the General Synod meets comes a few days after a bruising rejection in Great Britain’s local government election of the current coalition government’s approach and especially its eschewing of financial adversity policies. Albeit, this election was held after one of the most incompetently and ineptly handled budget presentations of the modern era. Granny taxes, pasty taxes and the incomprehensible policy on VAT which would impact upon charities and churches, contributed to the loss in public confidence and they followed hard on an unnecessary government instigated petrol shortage scare.
The reaction in British politics to financial austerity measures was reflected in similar votes in France where a radical change in the presidency has taken place and Greece where people combined against such policies, no matter how justifiable and necessary Germany, the Eurozone apologists and Eurocrats deem them to be. The possibility of Greece leaving the Euro with attendant consequences for the European Community have become a very realistic possibility. 25 percent youth unemployment in Spain, and evidence of the growth of right wing political groupings in the Netherlands, Greece and France also create the potential for further difficulties in the European experiment which can again be attributed to ongoing fiscal instability.
Closer to home, the situation in both jurisdictions in Ireland remains in jeopardy, and most authorities seem to claim much more so in the Republic where once again the electorate is going to be canvassed for a vote in relation to the Euro and European imposed fiscal policy treaty.
Without doubt the Synod will discuss the financial concerns of the church, and rightly so. It is reported that the clergy pension fund in its current format is in difficulties, and a totally different scheme for newcomers to the ordained ministry is to be developed. Not surprisingly the income from investments has been adversely affected by the global financial conditions despite the customary professional advice and necessary trust body oversight. There is evidence too of belt-tightening. Only the most irresponsibly optimistic could escape the conclusion that more of the same may be necessary for the present and the immediate and more distant futures. Financial miracles are few and far between. They do not constitute part of an effective audit, and especially for that of a responsible trust body.
Is it too much to hope that in discussing the economy of the church, the synod of what is “The Church of Ireland” will also reflect at equal length on the economy of Ireland? The young people of the church, and its elderly are amongst those on the island who are most severely impacted by the current financial situation. Once again it is financial forces, indeed the threat of ongoing survival-line living, that is feeding outward migration and a cynicism of politicians and bankers which has been enhanced by the heart-breaking church related child abuse tragedies and the Vatican’s intolerance of any form of public criticism by religious or other clerics.
Sadly, concepts and awareness of Christian stewardship in Ireland tend to stop at the free will offering envelope. There is little evidence in the reports being presented to Synod – and not just the Representative Body’s report – that the Church of Ireland has a great deal to say of import or relevance on the finances of the society in which it is embedded and to which it is called to serve in witness.
Jesus in the course of his ministry had quite a bit to say about wealth, poverty and social justice. The faith story narratives of love, forgiveness and redemption are inseparable from the restoration of justice and a preference for the poor in both the Old and New Testaments.
As Europe teeters on the brink of greater financial instability with further human anxiety, deprivation and suffering, has the Church of Ireland “a word from the Lord?” Or in this financial Titanic scenario will the Church of Ireland be seen to be more concerned with the examination of the minutiae of the arrangements of sexual deck chairs?
There will be those at Synod who will quote extensively from Holy Scripture on moral and especially sexual matters, or will posit cases based upon their selected readings of scripture who will be amongst the foremost absentees in such a critique of a financial situation which affects every person on this island. It is remarkable how extensively the Scriptures can be ignored even by those who profess to uphold them, and on a matter of such immensity.
Has the Church of Ireland a theologically and scripturally informed stance on finance which is applicable to its internal business and structures and which can cast a fair and critical light on public financial policies?