Church calls in consultant 'saviours'
Dwindling worshippers and declining tax revenues have plunged Germany's Christian churches into spiritual and financial crisis.
But instead of looking for divine salvation, the clergy are turning to management consultants.
Germany's two major Christian denominations are both dependent on a 'church tax', which lays claim to almost a tenth of the faithful's income. Amounting to state-organised tithing, the revenues have plummeted in recent years as the German economy flounders.
Besides saving souls, the country's Catholic and Protestant faiths are also struggling with more worldly matters such as crumbling churches, cutting social services and employee layoffs.
Church officials have started to ask private-sector restructuring experts for guidance.
'We were commissioned to help out those dioceses that had finances that were spiralling out of control or those that were already in debt,' said Kirsten Werbunat, a spokeswoman for McKinsey & Company.
Western Europe has not been a growth market for Christianity for quite some time. The Catholic Church alone has lost an estimated 2 million members in Germany since 1990.
