One of Britain’s senior theologians has warned that the Church of England is in danger of becoming a narrow sect “driven by mission-minded middle managers” who are alienating clergy, congregations and the general public.

Martyn Percy, dean of Christ Church, Oxford, writes in the afterword of his latest book, The Future Shapes of Anglicanism, that church leaders’ strategy is moving towards “centralised management, organisational apparatus and the kind of creeping concerns that might consume an emerging suburban sectarianism, instead of a national church”.

His far-reaching criticism comes as the Church of England presses ahead with a major reform programme, which includes diverting funds away from struggling rural parishes – traditionally its backbone – to new evangelical churches in city centres.

Other controversial elements of the Renewal and Reform programme include MBA-style management courses for bishops and other senior officials, the identification and fast-tracking of talented young clergy into leadership positions, and an emphasis on “church planting” – the establishment of new urban churches directed at young families and students.

The programme is an attempt by Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, and other leading figures to reverse the church’s dramatic decline. Forecasts earlier this year suggested numbers attending Church of England services regularly would continue to fall for another 30 years to about 1% of the population.

Renewal and Reform has created discord within the church, although a motion welcoming the programme was overwhelmingly carried at last month’s synod in York. But some critics claim there is little room for substantial debate on the programme.

According to Percy, the strategy is fundamentally flawed. “It will take more to save the Church of England than a blend of the latest management theory, secular sorcery with statistics and evangelical up-speak,” he writes.

A cure for the ailing church “would require a much deeper ecclesial comprehension than the present leadership currently exhibit … There seems to be no sagacity, serious science or spiritual substance to the curatives being offered.”

Rather, he says, the church “is being slowly kettled into becoming a suburban sect, corralling its congregations, controlling its clergy and centralising its communication. Instead of being a local, dispersed, national institution, it is becoming a bureaucratic organisation, managing its ministry and mission – in a manner that is hierarchically scripted.”

Bishops are forced to operate like area managers, with targets set by headquarters rather than by spiritual pastors. He writes that the archbishop, a former oil industry executive, “has set about reforming and renewing the Church of England with a zeal and zest more usually associated with secular management consultants”.

Percy says those who declare themselves to be non-religious “will not be won over to return to the church by increasingly organisational, theologically narrow and vogueish sectarian expressions of faith”. Instead there needed to be “a broad church – capacious and generous”. Narrow Anglicanism “is almost a contradiction in terms. It is the breadth that defines Anglican polity. And it is the breadth that will save it.”

Arun Arora, the church’s director of communications, defended the programme, saying it would take time to turn around attendance figures. “The most recent British Social Attitudes Survey is an indication that some of the initial changes rooted in the Reform and Renewal programme may be bearing fruit,” he said. “Any analysis that suggests there is no need for change or fails to meaningfully engage in any plans for growth simply ignores the issues at hand. Renewal and Reform is less about management and more how we learn to better serve God and neighbour. As the debate on church growth continues, the Church of England lives out its faith through the loving actions of its people. Whether it be feeding the hungry, providing shelter for the homeless, visiting the sick, befriending the lonely, welcoming the stranger or educating the young. Any analysis that presumes our first intention is self-preservation is fundamentally flawed as we faithfully worship God and serve our neighbours in every place.”

Percy claims his scepticism is shared by a largely silent majority in an increasingly evangelical church. Although few are as outspoken as the dean in their criticism, others have also expressed disquiet over the programme.

Robert Cotton, rector of Holy Trinity Guildford, said: “I’m fully behind [Welby] wanting to do something about the health of the church, but I’m not sure the language, the rhetoric, of Renewal and Reform is connecting with the sort of experience I have as a parish priest.”

Wyn Beynon, a priest in charge of five Worcestershire parishes, told last month’s synod debate on Renewal and Reform that the issue of pastoral care was “not present in that narrative in a clear enough way to satisfy me”.

He criticised the “rather disastrous illusion of leadership that has enchanted our discussion for so long”, and described as nonsense a report produced for the church by Lord Green, a former chairman of HSBC, two years ago on “talent management for future leaders”.