Anglican Church head backs Vatican on finance reform

By Keith Weir and Avril Ormsby

November 1, 2011 4:28 PM EDT

St Paul's Cathedral, in the heart of London's financial district, has for centuries occupied a delicate position between God and Mammon, benefiting from the generosity of rich financiers while supporting the more numerous poor.

The tents erected on its doorstep by protesters against the excesses of modern capitalism and its huge inequalities in wealth have presented the Church with an excruciating dilemma -- should it side with them or the bankers they criticise?

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual head of the Church of England, stepped into the debate Tuesday, backing calls by the Vatican last month for sweeping reforms of the world economic system and the creation of ethical regulation of financial markets.

"The best outcome from the unhappy controversies at St Paul's will be if the issues raised by the Pontifical Council can focus a concerted effort to move the debate on and effect credible change in the financial world," said Williams, spiritual leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans.

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The domed church, which was badly damaged but survived the blitz while London burnt in World War Two, has lost two senior clergy over its handling of the anti-capitalist protesters who set up camp over two weeks ago, after they were blocked from the nearby London Stock Exchange.

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The uninvited guests have ignited a clash between Church of England principles and the practicalities of running London's largest cathedral, which attracts 820,000 visitors a year from around the world.

Williams highlighted three elements in the Vatican document -- separation of ordinary retail banking from higher risk investment activities, recapitalisation of banks with public money and most controversially a financial transaction tax.

"If religious leaders and commentators in the UK and elsewhere could agree on these three proposals, as a common ground on which to start serious discussion, questionings alike of protesters and clergy will not have been wasted," he added in a commentary on the Financial Times website.

The British government has said it would support a financial transaction tax only if it were adopted globally and was not limited to Europe.

A stand-off at St Paul's between money and morality has shone an unwelcome spotlight on Britain's main Christian Church.

"It would have been impossible for St Paul's to give full-throated support to the protests," said Paul Bickley, a commentator with the religious think tank Theos.

"St Paul's can challenge the City but it can't be against the City. Those bankers are part of its parish," he added.

DIALOGUE OPENED

Reversing its previous approach, the cathedral authorities Tuesday put on hold plans to evict the protesters and began a dialogue with them instead.

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