Church Of England May Sell News Corp. Shares After Scandal

By Trevor Grundy
c. 2011 Religion News Service

CANTERBURY, England (RNS/ENInews) The Church of England said it may sell its $6 million share in News Corp, unless the global media organization conducts a full and open inquiry into a phone hacking scandal.

The church's Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG) said it told News Corp officials that the phone hacking charges swirling around its weekly tabloid, News of the World, are "utterly reprehensible and unethical."

News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch closed the newspaper on Sunday (July 10).

"No reply has been received yet," church spokesman Lou Henderson told ENInews. The issue had been raised privately during discussions about finance and business on Tuesday during the church's General Synod in York, he said.

"While EIAG welcomes the decision to close the News of the World, this action is not a sufficient response to the revelations of malpractice at the paper," EIAG said in a statement that was sent to Rupert Murdoch's office.

The Church of England's investment in the $32 billion News Corp is tiny. But the gesture is seen in business and church circles as significant. The church's total investment portfolio is about $8 billion.

"Church and lay people that know about it (the investment) are of a mind that we should disinvest," said the Rev. Jonathan Alderton-Ford, an Anglican vicar in southern England, "or we should be pressing through our ownership for change in the leadership of News Corporation."

Comments

[lastpost]

02:07 AM on 07/15/2011

"Church Of England May Sell News Corp. Shares"
and invest in something more ethical. Like Monsanto or BP?

"this action is not a sufficient response to the revelations of malpractice at the paper"
So, we’re also thinking of submitting an appeal for lightening strikes. By our head office on theirs.

[Red Russet]

09:34 PM on 07/14/2011

And QE2 is trying to get out of her shares as well.

[zetacplus]

01:56 PM on 07/14/2011

God's messenger is investing in Fox News....just great!

[jsaiditfirst]

12:46 PM on 07/14/2011

I get a sense of the inflection in the churches tone when they called it "reprehensible" and yet I cannot recall such a tone conveyed on any talks concerning child abuse!

[Godfearing]

12:05 PM on 07/14/2011

There is one group that will never live Mr. Murdoch's side and that is the White Christian Republican Tea Party Birther Fox News rhetoric machine. The first witnesses in the investigation will probably be Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reily, Sean Hannity, Roger Ailes, Ann Coulter, Karl Rove, Ralph Reed, Frank Luntz and Grover Norquist. And they will all take the Fifth Amendment!

[Gavin Saunders]

09:23 AM on 07/14/2011

Errm, you may want to do something about the hard core porn business BskyB is involved in and now everyone on the planet knows Muckmurdoch's News Corp owns 42% but wanted the lot.

[Sandra Dukelow]

08:57 AM on 07/14/2011

May? Should

[Kenz300]

07:34 AM on 07/14/2011

Quote --- " The church's Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG) said it told News Corp officials that the phone hacking charges swirling around its weekly tabloid, News of the World, are "utterly reprehensible and unethical."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An ethically and morally challenged organization -- We are talking about illegal activities.

Can an ethically and morally challenged organization have access to the public air ways and own media? Is being moral and ethical part of the criteria for being able to get a license?

[Godfearing]

12:09 PM on 07/14/2011

F&F ~ Birds of a feather stick together! What does the church think about Fox News and that "false witness" thingy!

[Rocks911]

09:01 AM on 07/15/2011

So many questions.

[the grange gorman]

07:19 AM on 07/14/2011

Sell the shares and make a big fuss about it

But

who else have you invested in ?

cigarette firms ?
monsanto ?
arms firms ?

why not spend the money on the poor , I think Jesus mentioned this

[Godfearing]

12:11 PM on 07/14/2011

F&F ~ Church members must know where their tithes go like in America. We all now any tithes here go to high life styles for the rich and famous TV ministers.

[Macready]

06:08 AM on 07/14/2011

good

[HawaiiSteve]

05:07 AM on 07/14/2011

It's 8 BILLION. The 6 MILLION they have in News Corp is a tiny part of their total investment portfolio.

[Marchmont]

02:41 AM on 07/14/2011

I was also amused to read the Church of England is “embarrassed” to hold News Iinternational shares now it has been shown to be a bully but not when it was just publishing sexual titillation. Could this be the same religious organization whose former boss, the now ennobled Lord Carey, was for so many years a regular columnist in the “loathsome” News of the World?

[sonjasmom]

08:29 PM on 07/13/2011

This is the first time they figured out that Murdoch's company might have some ethical problems?

[KennebunkportIndependent]

06:57 PM on 07/13/2011

Rupe is  Roman.   Sell the shares.

[gwithc]

06:01 PM on 07/13/2011

May?

What are they doing supporting those crazies anyway. I though the church was a moral and ethical institution.

I sure was wrong!

[Thomas Minot]

06:58 PM on 07/13/2011

That's what happens when one thinks.