Graham Sykes
Chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford

If our faith is real then it must translate into our lifestyle and all the decisions we make. One core Christian belief is that God’s love is for all human beings.

We are often told that the whole framework of the United Kingdom is based on Judeo Christian values and thought systems, which I think at root is true. It is just that in some cases those values have been deeply corrupted and require a reformation.

I have long agonised over the question as to whether there can be such a thing as ethical capitalism.

The crash of 2008 was entirely predictable. In the late 1980s the escalation of debt, the focus on the short term gain of shareholders and a mistaken belief in the trickle-down theory of wealth creation were all misplaced.

The 2008 crash was the result. It hit the poor of the world hardest.

A society with long term values and ethics cannot be served by a culture where short term shareholder gain is king.

Now, faced with the big issues of global warming and worldwide poverty, there is a realisation that the business models of late last century, which still many use today, is a recipe for a global disaster.

We can see some of this in the deaths of desperate migrants in the Mediterranean.

Poverty, in countries exploited for their natural resources by the first world, drives people to risk their lives to become part of that first world.

The Church of England’s recent investors behaviour is most encouraging.

Using shareholder power they have opposed obscene pay rises for senior executives, divested from fossil fuels and are deeply involved in the consortium that will reintroduce the Williams and Glyn’s banking brand in England with a traditional banking ethic.

Whilst I am not naïve enough to suggest that we simply roll back time and do what the Cadbury and Rowntree families did and all will be well, I do think that a wholesale rethink is necessary.

If there is to be hope and sustainability for the whole world then reliance on profit as the sole measure of company success has to go.