Church of England makes a U-turn

Nevada (US), Oct 12 (ANI): Hindus and Jews have strongly criticized Church of England over its "overnight reversal of soul" resulting in it becoming robust defender of hedge funds and rushing to their rescue.

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed and Rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich, prominent Jewish leader in Nevada and California have asked how the funds which Church termed as "bank robbers" in the past had suddenly become saviours, and the mighty Church had become lobbyist for these "former robbers".

A letter in response to European Commission Directive on Alternative Investments Fund signed by Secretary to Church Commissioners (Church's investment arm) Andrew Brown among others, says: ..." We are concerned that the Directive as currently drafted will significantly restrict our ability to generate funds... To maximise the returns on our investments, we must have freedom to select the best investment managers and funds, and to select the investment ideas that best meet our individual needs... The Directive will impact access to private equity funds and to hedge funds... This will significantly limit the scope and potential return of our investment portfolio..."

The Hindus and Jews insist that both Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Douglas Williams and Archbishop of York Dr. John Sentamu (who are also Church commissioners) strongly criticized the financial system in the recent past, but now the Church which managed about 4.4 billion pounds assets, had criticized European proposals to regulate hedge funds in order to increase the Church's ability to make money.

Although Church is reportedly a major hedge fund investor, but in the past, Williams reportedly said that it was right to ban short selling, while Sentamu described traders who cashed in on falling prices "bank robbers and asset strippers".

What happened to Church's strictly governed ethical investments policy? It was kind of "conversion" and the Church's new mission seemed to be "to save hedge funds" instead of "transforming the world" as given on its website. Now the hedge funds, highly speculative financial products charged with inciting instability in financial markets, was claimed to be serving the Church's compassion cause instead of being a greed source, Zed and Freirich said.

Williams pointed out last month that the financial sector failed to repent for the crisis. Williams in the past asked for greater scrutiny and regulation of the financial sector.

The religious leaders pointed out that all the religions condemned greed and he stressed the need to build a new world free from greed. (ANI)