God or Mammon: the Church Commissioners

“Master, you entrusted five talents to me; see, I have gained five more talents”.  “Well done, good and faithful servant”. Matt 25: 20-21.

Last week the Church Commissioners published the report on their investment portfolio for 2010.   Their funds grew from £4.8 billion to £5.3 billion, an increase of 15.2%.  The Church of England were no doubt following in the footsteps of the good servant in Jesus’ parable of the talents, but we Methodists might just wonder whether “following Mammon” would be a better description of their investment strategy.  The Methodist church deposits our spare cash with the Central Finance Board at a few per cent interest.

But then again, how should we judge whether that 15.2% gain was creditable, insufficient or excessive?  The FTSE-100 index rose 9% during that year which followed the worst of the banking crisis, so the Church did better than the average investor’s tracker funds.  And so they should: half of all investors did better than average, by definition.

Our own family portfolio gained 23%!  Where were we on the Mammon stakes?

[from my blog on Chilwell Road Methodist Church website]

Report for March 2011

Given that the Nikkei Index fell 13% after the Japanese earthquake, this month's outcome is gratifyingly stable.  Our three stocks (BHP Billiton, Tesco and Severn Trent) all fell slightly, but this was offset by a continuing steady rise in our First State China Growth Fund. 

So with the FTSE100 steady at 5932 and our portfolio steady at £20,874, the Unit Value remains close to 134.  Our wide range of funds is helping to keep our portfolio steady.