This week we have one of the founders of Tuesday Club, Peter Beck, speaking on the theme Asset rich and cash poor. What the churches are doing to rediscover how to use their resources for the common good.
Most of us will belong to organizations which often have stacks of cash, or assets sitting achieving stuff all. Often in the hands of trustees who are sincere, but are actually sincerely wrong. It’s time that we thought seriously about challenging those who are tying up assets which could be put to the common good. Come along and hear what Peter has been involved with over the last couple of years as a parish deliberated over its assets and where they should be placed.
Here’s what Peter wrote to me:
Last week something called Motion 11 was made the official policy of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. It’s about making us Anglicans look beyond financial returns to use all our assets for social impact. Looks like we’re going to catch up with where the world is headed where socially responsible investing is becoming the norm.
In our Church’s Mission statement we say ‘’we seek to respond to human need by loving service , to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation, to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth’’. This motion is about putting our ‘money where our mouth is’.
I’ll talk about the background to this motion and give some great examples of social investment here in Christchurch.
To illustrate just how groups can get themselves in a tangle, often with all the best will in the world, is this story about the Laura Fergusson Trust in Auckland appearing to have made a mess of their decision-making process, if this article in Newsroom is half right. Here’s the article: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/charity-for-disabled-deals-behind-closed-doors
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