Church financial chief admits investment mistakes

THE senior Church of England offi - cial in charge of finances admitted for the first time yesterday that errors in financial management had contribut - ed to losses of millions of pounds in the value of church assets. Speaking on his last day in office, Sir Douglas Lovelock, head of the Church Commissioners , who managed the church 's £2.36 billion assets, said that the commissioners had decided to invest heavily in commercial property "at the wrong moment", contributing to a £500 million fall in value. In an interview with The Times, Sir Douglas said it was "a mistake we made which we can now see with hindsight". He said that the error was only partly responsible for the fall in asset values from £3 billion to £2.5 billion in 1989 -

90 . The property slump and the big increases in, interest rates in the late 1980s; wei£eg&ally re'sponsible. Sir Dbuglasrthe First Church Es - tates Commissioner, appealed for more donations from church members as he vacated his seat for his successor, Sir Michael, Colman,'who takes over today! Sir Michael, chairman of Reckitt and Colman, is the first businessman to take a post traditional - ly held by a civil servant. Last month, Sir Douglas gave evi - dence to the group set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, to review the performance of the commissioners. The group is consider - ing asking the accountants Coopers & Lybrand to examine borrowings and asset management. Sir Douglas, said: "We had had enormous successes. We bought the Metro shopping centre in Gateshead