Church property bill opposed by PCUSA vanishes in Virginia
The Layman Online, January 26, 2006
A bill that would have allowed local congregations to keep their property if a majority of their members voted to leave their denominations did not survive the transition from the 2005 Virginia State Assembly to the 2006 legislature.
The sponsor of the legislation, Republican Sen. William Mims (R-Loudoun), withdrew the measure from Senate consideration late in the 2005 term after intensive lobbying by opponents. Representatives from the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Episcopal Church (USA) and other denominations warned the legislature not to get involved in church property disputes.
On Jan. 14, Mims, an Episcopalian whose own congregation voted to leave the Episcopal Church (USA), resigned from the Senate to become second in command in the Virginia Attorney General’s Office. His proposal, SB 1305, is not included under legislation being considered in either the Virginia House of Delegates or the Senate this year.
Mims is a lawyer who provided legal services for congregations seeking to pull out of their denominations and retain their property.
Mims’ bill stated, “If a division has heretofore occurred or shall hereafter occur in a congregation, which in its organization and government is a church or society entirely independent of any other church or general society, a majority of the members of such congregation, entitled to vote by its constitution as existing at the time of the division, or where it has no written constitution, entitled to vote by its ordinary practice of custom, may decide the right, title and control of all property held in trust for such congregation. Their decision shall be reported to such court, and if approved by it, shall be so entered as aforesaid, and shall be final as to such right of property so held.”