Church of England vows to use shareholdings to block big bonuses It hopes that its stance could start a "domino effect" among disgruntled investors. The Church, whose investment bodies have holdings in Barclays, RBS, Tesco, BP, Shell and Vodafone, among others, has a history of shareholder activism. It was among the most high profile investors to put pressure on News Corp in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal. On Friday, the Church's Ethical Investment Advisory Group sets out a reappraisal of its investment policies, attempting to reconcile financial considerations with what it sees as Christian principles. Unusually, it juxtaposes references to market reports by Deloitte and PwC with quotations from Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and it may be the first executive remuneration policy paper ever to contain references to "mammon." At one point, the paper states that: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." It condemns not only growing inequality between rich and poor but also the amassing of "great wealth" by individuals. But it also recognises the need to balance "idealism" with "realism" when setting incentives for top executives in a global market. It also praises the principle of work itself and companies as a source of good in society. The paper reflects the wider critique of the excesses of the City espoused by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, who once wrote a book called Can Companies Sin?.