<p>The market gods have been very kind to the Church of England.</p> <p>Its endowment generated a return of 17.1% in 2016, far outstripping most similar funds as well as the Dow Jones and S&amp;P 500 indexes.</p> <p>The Church Commissioners, the group that oversees the fund, described the returns as &quot;stellar.&quot; The overall value of the fund rose by nearly &pound;1 billion ($1.3 billion) to &pound;7.9 billion ($10.3 billion).</p>