From the Church Times (England)
CHURCH BUILDINGS and prop erty in the diocese of California do not belong to seceding congregations but to the diocese and the Episcopal Church, the Californian Supreme Court has ruled.
The ruling is a landmark one. It applies to three churches in Newport Beach, Long Beach, and North Hollywood; but it has implications for other dioceses in the United States which are currently in conflict with departing congregations.
The court upheld an earlier decision that the diocese held the property and buildings in trust for the wider mission and ministry of the Church.
The judge ruled that, while the court could not decide on doctrinal matters, it could rule on property disputes using “neutral principles of law”. Governing documents made it clear that church property “is held in trust for the general church, and may be controlled by the local church only so long as that local church remain a part of the general church. When it disaffiliated from the general church, the local church did not have the right to take the church property with it.”
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=68606
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