Passive Faithfulness
A few years ago, I served on a church-wide task force that was asked by General Convention to “to summarize the ways in which The Episcopal Church understands the theology of money and financial resources in the way we give, invest, and spend” (Resolution 2018-A061). Having previously served on the committee that authored that resolution, I can say with confidence that the primary motivation behind it was a desire to compel the Church Pension Fund to align its investments and operations with the theology of the church as expressed by the General Convention.
Accordingly, during the three years that we met, our task force spent most of our time examining the ways that the church’s institutions use money. In addition to the pension fund, we looked at seminary, diocesan, and parish endowments. We searched for examples of Episcopal organizations that had adopted theological guidelines for how their endowments should be invested and used. We interviewed rectors, deans, and bishops as well as investment managers and endowment committee members. And we came up with a lot of examples of how the wider church expresses its theology through the management of its financial resources.
In the end, however, we recognized that our focus needed to be on something even bigger than the pension fund. Instead of merely summarizing what institutional investors are doing, we produced a report that was designed for ordinary people and parishes. It took the shape of the eucharistic liturgy and assumed that the primary work of living out our church’s theology of money belongs not to General Convention or the Church Pension Fund but to the people in the pews—you and me and all the faithful people of God.
I was proud of what our team accomplished. Unfortunately, we were due to report to the 2021 General Convention, which was postponed until 2022 and then drastically shortened. As a result, our finished product was largely ignored, filed away with dozens of reports deemed not important enough for discussion at an abbreviated convention. One thing from our work that I still hold onto and seek to practice is the belief that all of us, as a collection of individuals, have far more impact than even the $17.5 billion dollars managed by the Church Pension Fund.
God has given us everything that we have. That’s true not only for our church but also for each one of us. We are custodians of what God has given us, and, as faithful stewards, we are called to give away some of our resources to support God’s work in the world. At St. Paul’s and in The Episcopal Church, we emphasize the biblical model of the tithe—of giving the first ten percent of our income back to God. But that does not mean that we get to do whatever we want with the remaining ninety percent. God wants us to be faithful with everything we have—every breath, every word, every action, every cent—and that includes how we invest our money.
Do you think it would be acceptable to God to make a living extorting vulnerable people as long as you gave a tenth of your income to the church? Do you think that God would mind if you made millions of dollars on the backs of impoverished workers as long as you gave some of your profits to charity? Of course not. Those may be hyperbolic examples far beyond anything any of us would ever consider, but I am willing to bet that most of us who have investments in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or exchange traded funds hold and make money from at least one position that conflicts with our own values. I know I do, and it eats away at my conscience.
St. Paul’s Endowment Committee wants to be sure that our church’s investments reflect our values to the extent that it is reasonably possible. Because of that, they have adopted the investment guidelines provided by The Executive Council of The Episcopal Church. That group, which is like a denominational version of our parish’s vestry, is not in charge of the pension fund, but they do make decisions on how lots of money is invested on behalf of the church. The Executive Council has no such authority over our parish, but it has issued a list of no-buy stocks that provides our endowment committee a place to start when trying to decide how to invest.
Following that no-buy list, we have asked our investment managers to avoid holding stocks in tobacco companies, private prisons, military contractors, and companies that derive more than ten percent of their revenue from fossil fuels. There are exceptions, which arise from broad-market investments that may have some exposure in those areas, but our endowment holds no concentrated positions in them. That is primarily a theological decision, but, as one member of the committee expressed at our last meeting, potential donors want to support organizations whose values reflect their own, and that increasingly includes investments, making that an economic decision, too.
The St. Paul’s endowment currently has around $4.3 million. That is significant, but the significance of our collective investment decisions is far greater. I wonder how much money is held in the bank accounts and investment portfolios of the members of St. Paul’s, of the Diocese of Arkansas, or of The Episcopal Church. What would happen if all of us decided that what we believe about God should be reflected in all our assets and not only in our parishes’ operating budgets?
Some investors, including the Church Pension Fund, use their money to actively influence corporate behavior through shareholder initiatives or organized divestment campaigns. While I do not discount those efforts, what I have in mind is something simpler. What if we approached our individual investment portfolios the way we approach trips to the grocery store or our time spent shopping online?
Sometimes I splurge on something I do not really need, but I would never purchase something that conflicts with my deeply held values. Similarly, I would never give my money to a company that I believed to be actively working against the reign of God. So why do I hold onto investments that I think do just that?
There are lots of reasons, including the complicated and overlapping nature of markets and investments. Some of those reasons are beyond my control, but others—like greed, apathy, and laziness—are certainly not. I am most definitely not offering you any investment advice, but I am recommending that you talk to your investment advisor or another financial professional about aligning your assets with your values. That is not a simple decision, and it may prove costly, but, as Jesus says, what does it matter if we gain the whole world but forfeit our life?
If you want to know more about the St. Paul’s endowment and how you can make a gift to support the long-term ministries of this church by contributing to it through an estate gift, let me know. If you are curious how we as a parish are trying to be faithful not only in the ways we spend money but also in how we invest it, let me know.
Yours faithfully,
Evan D. Garner
