The Church of England is heading toward what a new academic report calls a "financial disaster" unless it makes what the authors describe as drastic changes, including cutting the number of dioceses at least in half and reining in expenses.

The report, Wasted Money in a Diminishing Church, was written by professors Canon Robin Gill and John Craven. Craven served for nearly a decade on the Archbishops' Council, giving the study's findings a weight that is hard to dismiss.

According to the report, 37 out of 42 dioceses are now running budget deficits, compared with 19 just a few years ago. The authors argue that more and more of the church's money is being spent on administration in every diocese while churchgoing continues to decline, and less and less is being spent on supporting parish clergy.

"As clergy are spread ever more thinly in urban and rural areas, services are less frequent, congregations are getting smaller, and less money can be raised in church collections from people who wonder what they are getting for their money," the authors write.

The numbers are sobering. Attendance has continued to fall, down 25 percent since 2015. A third of those who attend are over the age of 70. Giving has dropped 30 percent over the last decade, with the average amount given weekly by parishioners now around $21 a week.

The report also points to large projects that many churchgoers view as costly and unnecessary. It names the church's carbon reduction plans and Project Spire, a £100 million investment fund created to address the church's historical links to the slave trade. Church leaders had set a target of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 at a cost of £190 million in eco-friendly upgrades for churches and vicarages; they have since acknowledged the deadline will not be met.

Meanwhile, the report says diocesan staff numbers have grown roughly 80 percent since 2005, from about 1,300 to 2,300, including new roles such as net-zero officers, safeguarding specialists, and racial justice leads. Over the same period, the number of parish clergy has fallen sharply. There are now 40 mainland dioceses, compared with 22 in 1800, and four times as many bishops as in the Victorian era.

The Church of England is one of the oldest Christian denominations in the world, and its decline carries a warning for churches everywhere: an institution that spends more on maintaining itself than on feeding its people will not last. The Lord has entrusted His church to preach the Gospel, make disciples, and care for the flock, not to build ever-larger bureaucracies.

When giving declines and buildings empty, the answer is not cleverer budgets alone but repentance, prayer, and a return to the simple work of winning souls. "Without me ye can do nothing," Jesus said in John 15:5, and no financial restructuring can substitute for the power of the Holy Spirit working through faithful men in the pulpit.