The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), through investments of the Board of Pensions, has submitted a proposal to Microchip Technology Incorporated (MTI) requesting its board of directors commission an independent study “to determine whether its customers’ use of its products contribute or are linked to violations of international humanitarian law (IHL).”
Asked during the most recent edition of “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast” to define “shareholder engagement,” Tim Smith had this succinct answer: It’s “investors taking seriously that they’re partial owners in companies.”
Whether we or our faith communities are investing a few dollars or millions, we can, with a little outside help and some of our own insights, advance our values through those investments.
When Joseph Kinard talks about the need for socially responsible investing by faith communities, he likes to refer back to the Matthew 25 story in which Jesus talks about the importance of caring for “the least of these.”
As you travel on a patchwork section of Interstate 75 in Southwest Detroit and cross the River Rouge, this scene emerges before you: towers and tanks spreading out on both sides of the road, constituting a massive Marathon petroleum refinery.
For hours, Fossil Free PCUSA representatives lay scattered across the floor outside of the convention hall at the 223rd General Assembly in St. Louis last week. The “die-in” was in response to the commissioners’ decision to accept a minority report asking the Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) to continue its engagement with fossil fuel companies.
Investments can do well – the Presbyterian Foundation believes – and do good at the same time. Through practices of impact investing, corporate engagement, and use of positive and negative screens, the Foundation seeks to manage all aspects of the funds entrusted to them in accordance with God’s call for faithful stewardship.
Despite some heat, a few blisters and at least one case of poison ivy, participants in the PC(USA) Walk for a Fossil Free World are encouraged as they enter the final days of their trek to St. Louis. The walk, a joint project of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and Fossil Free PCUSA, began June 1 at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville. It ends June 16 at the start of the 223rd General Assembly.
With gray and overcast skies above them, a group of 25 to 30 people gathered at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville on Friday morning to begin a two-week trek to St. Louis on foot. The PC(USA) Walk for a Fossil Free World is a joint project of both the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and Fossil Free PCUSA to stand against investment in the fossil fuel industry.