Was It a Typo?

(Dreamstime)

In a story about the number of Anglican worshippers by country:

Unsurprisingly, the country with the largest population of followers is the foundering state, the United Kingdom. The Church of England has an incredible following of 26,000,000 people. In the second position, the Church of Nigeria has about 18,000,000 believers...

The writer meant founding ("the activity or process of beginning an institution"), not foundering ("To fail utterly; collapse: a marriage that soon foundered").

Given the sorry condition of Britain's ship of state (Brexit, immigration), however, foundering may be the correct usage.