Have you been following the fortunes of the dear old Church of England? Perhaps you have, and you'll have noticed that Sarah Mullally's leftist conventicle's committed to two things, NetZero and Reparations, reparations for slavery.
Leaving aside the venerable COE's leading role in ending slavery, neither of these two projects come in cheap, they cost money. Shipping over a million Pounds to Africa to buy votes and associated green virtue signaling costs cold, hard, cash.
Even ZeroHedge picked up on the unwholesome story, reminding us that 37 out of 42 dioceses are running deficits, as opposed to 18 in 2019, and that these same dioceses now employ 80% more administrative staff than they did in 2005. All this, while clergy numbers continue to fall. Here's Zero:
"More and more of its funds are being spent on administration in every diocese while churchgoing continues to decline, and less and less is spent on supporting parish clergy," the report says. Its twelve recommendations include cutting the number of dioceses and diocesan bishops to around 30, cutting the money allocated nationally to strategic investments by at least three-quarters, and making deaneries the main budget holders.
The authors also single out social justice projects as "costly" and "extravagant," and say congregations see them as "unrealistic, extravagant, unsustainable and deeply depressing." And of course, the church's woke Net Zero target is insane - the Church wants to reach it by 2030 and, according to the Mail, has a £190 million fund for eco-friendly renovations, but a Church Times report says its own progress report forecasts a cut of about 29 percent from 2023 levels by 2030, short of the target.
The other is... reparations! Project Spire, a £100 million fund spread over nine years, set up after research the Church commissioned concluded that Queen Anne's Bounty, a predecessor of the Church Commissioners' endowment, had links to the transatlantic slave trade. Critics, including the Conservative peer Nigel Biggar, call that research flawed - though of course the Church rejects the charge.
Well you know what they say, dear friends, go woke, go broke. That in mind, d'ye think the UK's state Church's fiscal trajectory serves as a parable for the nation at large?
You be the judge,
LSP
