The Episcopal Church has fully divested from fossil fuels, complying with a mandate passed by General Convention in 2015, the church’s Office of Public Affairs reported on December 11.
The divestment was completed three weeks before a deadline imposed by last summer’s General Convention, which resolved that “any and all investments in companies in fossil fuel industries remaining in the DFMS portfolio be sold by December 31, 2024.”
Episcopal News Service reports that total holdings in trust funds managed by the Episcopal Church Center total about $500 million.
“I am grateful that our church has followed through on this commitment to the care of God’s creation — this Earth we all share,” said Sarah Lawton, a lay deputy from California who serves as chair of the Executive Council Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility (CCSR). The committee, which develops and oversees the church’s ethical investment policies, proposed Resolution A029, which imposed the deadline, at General Convention 2024.
“In all our work, CCSR will continue to consider our investments in terms of our deeply held values as a church. We encourage other church bodies with investments to do so as well,” she added.
Resolution A029 highlights the leadership that the Church of England has taken in fossil-fuel divestment. In June 2023, the Church Commissioners and the Church of England Pensions Board both announced a commitment to pull out of this investment sector by the end of 2023.
During November’s COP29 Climate Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, a coalition of Christian organizations announced that 27 dioceses, congregations, parishes, and associations had committed to fossil-fuel divestment in the past year, bringing the total of Christian organizations known to have made such a commitment to more than 570. The Episcopal Church sent a delegation to the climate summit this year.
Such divestment and a corresponding commitment to clean energy investment has also been encouraged by Pope Francis and the World Council of Churches.
The Episcopal Church was a pioneer among American religious institutions in ethical investment. At last summer’s General Convention, Paul Neuhauser, who served on the CCSR for more than 50 years, was honored for his leadership in the field.
One important early win was a 1971 shareholder resolution proposed by the church that required General Motors to stop manufacturing in South Africa because of apartheid.
Today, there are investment restrictions in five categories: human rights, military contracting, for-profit prisons, tobacco products, and fossil fuels. The CCSR maintains a No-Buy List of over 200 companies whose shares it discourages purchasing because of their degree of involvement in these areas.
The 2015 mandate and 2024 disinvestment do not apply to the $17. 5 billion in the Church Pension Group’s investment portfolio (as of March). The 2015 resolution was amended in the House of Bishops to include this exemption.
The Church Pension Fund said in a 2020 Sustainability Report that it has responded to the intent of the mandate by increasing its investment in renewable energy and lobbying companies in which it invests, including “airlines, oil and gas companies, and consumer product companies” to increase environmental sustainability.
The mandate also does not apply to dioceses, some of which have substantial holdings in gas and oil wells. The Diocese of Oklahoma, for example, expects to receive $1,175,261 — 17.7 of total revenue — from “oil & gas income” to cover its 2025 operating budget.
The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and also writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.