The Church of England is "heading for financial disaster" thanks to its Net Zero ambitions and a £100million slavery reparations fund, according to a new report by Canon Robin Gill and Professor John Craven - who found that 37 out of 42 dioceses now run deficits vs. 2019 when it was just 18.
The authors of Wasted Money in a Diminishing Church call falling attendance, donations and ordinations a "crisis," and say dioceses now employ 80 percent more staff than in 2005, with the total rising from 1,300 to 2,300. According to the Daily Mail, the new roles include net zero officers, racial justice leads and safeguarding experts, and some dioceses now have as many staff as ministers.
"More and more of its funds are being spent on administration in every diocese while churchgoing continues to decline, and less and less is spent on supporting parish clergy," the report says. Its twelve recommendations include cutting the number of dioceses and diocesan bishops to around 30, cutting the money allocated nationally to strategic investments by at least three-quarters, and making deaneries the main budget holders.
The authors also single out social justice projects as "costly" and "extravagant," and say congregations see them as "unrealistic, extravagant, unsustainable and deeply depressing." And of course, 
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