The Church of England is launching a radical review of its finances after warnings from dioceses that they could face bankruptcy.
Parishioners' donations during services are failing to reach targets - no diocese reaches the 5% of average earnings (about £17 per church member per week) held to be needed - and £500m has been wiped off the church's £3.5bn assets in the past year on financial markets.
The bleak figures help explain the strength of the threat by some wealthy evangelical churches to withhold payments to diocesan funds if the gay theologian Jeffrey John were ordained as suffragan bishop of Reading.
Some dioceses have frozen recruitment and warned privately that they are in dire straits, though only London has so far admitted it may have to close churches. The review will consider the cost of bishops' palaces and amalgamating diocesan bureaucracies.