Newsline: FedEx given 'no fly zone' by Brethren Benefit Trust

From CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>
Date Fri, 3 Jun 2011 15:06:31 -0500

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl
Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

FedEx given 'no fly zone' by Brethren Benefit Trust

(June 3, 2011) Elgin, IL -- At its spring meeting, the Brethren Benefit Trust 
(BBT) Board of Directors addressed BBT's relationships with businesses that 
have major contracts with the US Department of Defense. Other items dealt with 
at the meeting April 30-May 1 included an assistance plan for Brethren Pension 
Plan annuitants, a change in how the fund that pays out pension annuities is 
invested, BBT's securities lending program, and compliance and data security 
issues.

FedEx was given a "no-fly zone" by the board. Each year, companies that have 
business practices at odds with Church of the Brethren Annual Conference 
statements are screened from BBT's investment portfolio. This includes 
businesses that have major contracts with the US Department of Defense.

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) director Steve Mason presented two lists 
of Department of Defense contractors that in 2010 either earned 10 percent or 
more of their income from such contracts or were one of the top 25 publicly 
traded contracting firms. 

While many of the firms are not household names, the same cannot be said about 
FedEx. With the board's approval of the lists, BBT will avoid patronizing FedEx 
during the next year, as well as the 83 other businesses that appear on the 
lists.

Review the lists at www.brethrenbenefittrust.org.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continuing 
the work of
Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in community. The 
denomination is based
in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic 
Peace Churches. It
celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 123,000 members across 
the United
States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, 
Brazil, the Dominican
Republic, Haiti, and India.

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Steve Mason
>Director of Brethren Foundation Inc.
>Director of Socially Responsible Investing Initiatives
>Brethren Benefit Trust
>1505 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
>847-622-3369
>smason_bbt@brethren.org