Despite growing, worldwide fears over the health dangers of mobile phones and phone masts, the Church of England has given its blessing to aerial installations on church towers.

With the international debate intensifying and scientists disagreeing among themselves, is it wise for the church to be so heedless of public anxiety?

The clear answer has to be: "No". But the most cursory examination of its critical financial state reveals why so much of church leaders' thinking is driven by the need for cash rather than morality.

Most dioceses in the Church of England are heading towards insolvency. Locally, Chichester, with an increasing deficit, has already admitted that a dozen or so parishes are close to going under. In London, they have been dipping into reserves for the past five years and clergy numbers have been reduced by 30.

In Canterbury they talk of many parishes being in dire straits. Even more seriously, the Church's status as a moral leader in an increasingly irreligious society is waning. It is widely perceived to lack toughness to hold on to traditional values or to wholeheartedly support marriage as the most important stable relationship.

But what about those telephone aerials? While some see the average £5,000 a year rental charge as manna from heaven, others decry it as the devil's gold - the 21st Century equivalent of welcoming moneylenders into the temple. Naively, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, and the Archbishop of York, the Most Reverend David Hope, advise 'vigilant trust' rather than 'wariness' in dealing with companies wanting masts in churches.

More robust advice is needed for unworldly vicars dealing with salesmen whose stock-in-trade is ruthlessly aggressive selling.

As for the health aspect, the Stewart Report commissioned by the Government said only that research to date does not suggest emissions from phones and base stations are harmful to us.

Hardly conclusive evidence with which to validate an unholy scramble for cash. And wasn't something like that said early in the BSE crisis?

Church leaders are also alienating parishioners with plans for cash machines in rural churches.

In a society driven by greed and the profit motive, the church seems no different from anyone else. Opponents quote St Matthew 21:12, which has Jesus casting out those who sold and bought in the temple and overthrowing the tables of the money changers.

So how can the Bishop of Norwich assure us that cash machines in church are an 'excellent' development? You cannot take the high moral road and dispense with basic teaching.

The Church is hugely rich in property. Radical re-thinking about such assets with strong financial management could transform its fortunes.

Bishops do not need grandiose palaces to live in. Vicars do not need large rectories. And while it is sad but realistic, dwindling congregations no longer need a church on every corner.

Unless it really grasps what is happening, the church's decline will become irreversible.