| This week, a potentially
precedent-setting bill was sent back to committee in the Virginia
Senate. Senate Bill 1305 would have made it possible for congregations
who choose to leave their denomination to keep their church
property.
Certain denominations, such as the Episcopalians,
Methodists and Presbyterians, allow congregations to hold their
property “in trust”, while the denomination maintains actual
ownership through their denominational authority, such as a
Diocese.
Eighteen months ago, Virginia’s supreme court
struck down a portion of that state’s constitution that prohibited
churches from incorporating or from owning significant amounts
of property (see my article in the Tulsa Beacon August 20, 2003
edition or at my website). Next year, Virginia may become the
site of a law that could potentially change the way that denominations
own property.
The bill’s author, Senator William C. Mims,
brought the bill to the Senate, but there has been so much controversy
that he agreed to allow it to be sent back to committee for
more discussion. He plans to bring it back to the Senate next
year in another attempt to get it passed.
The catalyst for the bill is rooted in the growing
chasm that is developing within certain denominations over the
issue of homosexuality. Many conservative congregations have
threatened to leave their denominations if homosexual marriages
or homosexual ordination of priests of pastors continues to
be allowed. Many who would like to leave their denominations
have not done so because their denomination would keep their
property, leaving them with no place to meet and with financial
hardship.
Critics of the proposed legislation feel that
it creates an improper involvement of the state with the affairs
of churches. Proponents feel that it would offer some relief
from some of Virginia’s archaic laws.
Mim’s proposed law would allow congregations
to keep their property after splitting from their denomination
only if ten percent of a diocese or ten of its churches voted
to secede.
Controversy began immediately after Mim’s announcement
of the proposed law. Two of the three Virginia Episcopal Bishops
condemned the bill, while the American Anglican Council (an
orthodox division of the Episcopal Church) applauded the bill
for its potential to protect religious freedom.
Virginia’s Attorney General approves of the
proposed law, stating that it would actually reduce the state’s
need to be involved with church property issues by reducing
“excessive entanglement” in church business.
Senator Mims, a Republican, is a member of the
Church of the Holy Spirit (Episcopal) in Ashburn, Virginia.
Mims is also a practicing attorney who is well versed in church
law and church property issues.
Mim’s church is a satellite congregation of
the Truro (Episcopal) Church, which has been openly opposed
to a gay Episcopal Bishop. Both congregations are members of
a growing network of Episcopal congregations that have effectively
become a duplicate (conservative) Episcopal church, the “Anglican
Mission in America”(AmiA).
If this law passes next year, it may trigger
a mass defection, not just from the Episcopal Church, but also
from several other denominations who are debating homosexual
issues.
If there is a mass defection from the Episcopal
Church, it would not be the first time it would happen over
a controversial issue. In the mid-70’s, 200 parishes left that
denomination over the issue of ordination of women to the priesthood.
In response, the Episcopal Church adopted the "Dennis Canon”
in 1979, which stated that the diocese and the national church
owned each of its parish’s property, even if the deed was in
the name of the parish.
However, the courts have not been upholding
this practice. The California Supreme Court has allowed a congregation
to keep its property after splitting from its denomination,
and the Supreme Court has declined to hear a case from the United
Methodist denomination that was upheld in Superior Court, allowing
a break-away congregation to keep its property.
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