In the decade following severe financial crises, growth rates are about one percentage point lower and unemployment rates five percentage points higher.3 The current U.S. recovery is proving no exception. In Europe, the recovery is being restrained by major competitiveness and fiscal challenges in peripheral economies, as well as the risks of contagion from under-capitalised banks.
The formation of the Friends of St Mark’s and its activities over the years is glowing evidence, if any was required, that the role of Bishops has been redefined to shed its elitist image of the past.