http://www.postandcourier.com/article/2 ... pal-churchFor a long time, as The Episcopal Church has been disintegrating over doctrine and practice, the church hierarchy has refused to allow what they call "renegade" congregations to remain in the buildings that they constructed and paid for, largely with congregational funds. There are numerous cases where the vast majority of an Episcopal congregation has dissented from the doctrinal rulings of the national clergy, but have had to leave a building that they built and financed on the basis of "denominational polity." This ruling, which apparently combed through the church's policies and practices pretty thoroughly, turns that position around, and rules that individual dioceses are not required to be members of the national body in order to retain their property. There are some particulars in this case which may make it somewhat different from others, such as the fact that the South Carolina diocese was formed, and existed before the national body did, but I'm guessing there's a precedent here that will change the course of the controversy, and allow Episcopal congregations that have left the national body to retain, or regain, their property.
It will be interesting to see if this spreads to other denominations that are also hemorrhaging church members over gay ordination of clergy, which is what the beef in TEC is all about. Sometimes congregational polity gets sticky, but when you have a hierarchical church in which the clergy are determined to stubbornly force the membership to accept something they don't believe is Biblical, it creates a larger crisis. The exodus from The Episcopal Church has been substantial, and shows no signs of slowing down. This ruling will likely accelerate the separations, while, ironically, preserving the denomination itself.