As Lord Green should know, the clergy’s role is to help the poor not the rich
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Version 0 of 1. Since the late 1960s, a growing number of ordained Church of England clergy have earned their livings in secular employment. The Rev Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint was one (The boss: banker, peer, minister, priest, 10 February). Some of us provide a free service to the parishes in which we live; others engage with the fairness or unfairness of the secular structures in which we are employed. The Rev Stephen Green’s chairmanship of HSBC while legal tax avoidance and illegal tax evasion were taking place raises important questions for the Church of England about the role of all clergy in secular employment. Our faith, and any normal respect for humanity, requires us to work with and for the poorest and weakest, the sick and disabled, both personally and politically. That means engaging the financial and political structures that put them a long way second to the pursuit of personal financial gain. Should any member of the clergy have continued to preside over a billion-pound institution that flagrantly diminishes the capacity of a nation to pursue economic justice?Rev Paul NicolsonTaxpayers Against Poverty • Perhaps the first question Jackie Ashley (The short-termism of our NHS is spelt out in the scandal over hearing aids, 10 February) and the rest of us should be asking is just how many hearing aids and how many cochlear implants could have been paid for if the tax evaders and avoiders banking at HSBC had paid their taxes. The second question should be how many of our politicians and tax officials are in need of cochlear implants and cataract operations, considering the deaf ears and blind eyes they have turned towards tax evaders over the years. Of course, Lord Green may well require more radical surgery to cure his sudden inability to speak about HSBC.Richard StainerBradfield St George, Suffolk • Is Lord Green aware that the first peer to style himself “of Hurstpierpoint” was Lord Goring, whose family’s fortunes were founded on funds embezzled from the Queen’s revenue in the reign of Elizabeth I?Jeremy GoringSt Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex • Is the Rev Stephen Green the same Rev Green discovered with a piece of lead piping in the conservatory?Stuart GarsideNew Mills, Derbyshire |