Rowan Williams doesn’t have much use for capitalism and he is less than enamoured of the banking system that supports it.

That hasn’t stopped the Church of England from trying to amass profits from the system they enjoy excoriating; I think that is called hypocrisy. Now it has all gone horribly wrong:

The Church of England was accused today of squandering its clergy pensions through reckless betting on the stock market.

Its deepening crisis over how to pay the pensions for retired vicars is ‘largely self-inflicted’, a leading analyst said.

The criticism is an embarrassing new blow to the CofE at a time when it faces divisions over women bishops and homosexuality, a campaign by Roman Catholics to recruit disaffected Anglicans, and the need to ask churchgoers to put more into collection plates to ease its financial worries.

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has been strongly critical of bankers and financiers over their behaviour during the recession.