Denominations v Congregations

The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia is getting support in its fight over state rules governing church splits from the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and the Presbyterian Church, USA among others. More than a dozen Protestant denominations and regional districts have filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the Episcopal Diocese. Under state law passed after the Civil War, congregations get to keep their property whenever they break off from a denomination. The issue has come up because so many congregations are leaving mainline churches over issues such as gay clergy and same-sex unions. Eleven conservative congregations left Episcopal Church to join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a group backed by the conservative Anglican Church of Nigeria. The court battle is expected to last for years.