Mission

What is St Paul's Institute?

St Paul's Institute exists to engage the financial world with questions of morality and ethics and how they relate to finance, business and the economy. In doing this, the Institute recaptures the Cathedral's ancient role as a centre for public debate in order to consider these issues in the wider context of the common good and human flourishing.

By exploring themes of equality, stewardship and the meaning of the common good, we bring the distinctive wisdom of the Christian tradition to bear on our understanding of the role of the economy in modern society.

Goals

The goals of St Paul's Institute are as follows:

1. To engage with questions of morality and ethics and how they relate to finance, business and the economy. 
2. To consider finance, business and the economy in the wider context of the common good and human flourishing.
3. To bring the distinctive wisdom of the Christian tradition to bear on our understanding of the role of the economy in modern society.
4. To stimulate Christian learning (academic and applied) on the relationship between faith and the economy.
5. In doing so, to make a respected and distinctive contribution as an agent for engagement, influence and change to the furtherance of human flourishing through economic activity in the City of London and beyond.
6. In pursuing these goals, we will always seek to create a safe space for dialogue, promote understanding, and work in partnership or co-operation with other Christian denominations, other faith communities, and all people of goodwill.

Archbishop Rowan Williams on St Paul's Institute

"An ethical approach to economics requires us to move away from the illusion that economics can be considered separately from questions of the health and well-being of the society we inhabit. It also involves recognising that we exist in a world of materially limited resource - so that environmental degradation has to be taken into account in any assessment of the cost of projects or transactions.