CofE asset management report reveals shocking pay gap

This means that the highest paid worker at the organisation that manages the assets of the Church received 23 times more than the lowest earner.

The Church paid record bonuses of more than £1m in 2018 to the asset managers who look after its wealth.

In the same year, Archbishop Justin Welby condemned wealth inequality when he sat on the Commission on Economic Justice.

Speaking last year at the launch of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) economic justice commission report, Archbishop Justin said: “Everyone is better off when the rewards of the economy are more fairly shared.

“So a core message of the Commission is that a fairer economy is a stronger economy.

“But redistributing the results of economic growth is no longer sufficient to confront the challenges of today’s economy.

“Justice must be ‘hard-wired’ into the processes of production and consumption – in the labour market, in corporate governance and the ownership of assets, and in the rules of the market.”

The commission insists that it manages the Church’s £8.2 billion investment fund “responsibly and ethically”.

A spokesperson for the Church Commissioners told the Daily Mail: “Despite a challenging market environment, the commissioners produced a positive return and our tenth year of positive returns.”

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