The running gag is that the Church of England’s the Tory Party at prayer and if there’d been a Tory party in 1170 I reckon they’d regard Giles Fraser and Thomas Beckett as peas from the same pod.

My Sunday reading is now limited to the on-line press since our subscription to NOTW was cancelled. Thanks to Vic tweeting  @Cpeanose for this great bit of journalism from the Independent on Sunday

A highly critical report into the moral standards of bankers has been suppressed by St Paul’s Cathedral amid fears that it would inflame tensions over the Occupy London tent protest.

 The report, based on a survey of 500 City workers who were asked whether they thought they were worth their lucrative salaries and bonuses, was due to be published last Thursday, the day that the Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s, Giles Fraser, resigned in protest at the church’s tough stance.

 The article concludes with the results of a “phone round”.

Over the past three days, The Independent on Sunday asked 80 Anglican bishops to comment on the protest. …… 16 gave a direct no comment or insisted it was a matter for the London diocese; 18 were away or unavailable for comment, and the remainder failed to respond,

If the Church of England has any point in 2011, it is to provide an authoritative moral perspective independent of the Toryboy world of Britain’s banks.

The COE has failed to respond to this challenge either by entering into a proper discussion with Occupy London or by publishing the research of the the St Paul’s Institute survey which was due to be published on 27 October to mark the 25th anniversary of the “Big Bang“, when the financial markets were deregulated in 1986.

The party line is that the report would have been lost in the noise of  Occupy London. I suspect that the report would for once have placed the Church of England at the centre of the proper moral debate over the responsibilities  of the City , the global banking system and of capitalism itself.