Congregations splitting from denominations battle to keep church property
McClatchy Newspapers
Fri, Feb. 22, 2008

SACRAMENTO, Calif. --For 55 years, members of Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church have tithed their 10 percent, money that often went toward maintaining 12 acres of tree-lined church property.

Now they've been told that the church building and grounds where generations have worshipped does not belong to them -- but rather to the national denomination with which they want to cut ties because they believe it has lost its biblical authority.

"What about the blood, sweat and tears of the congregation -- all of us who have given all these years?" said Jane Constance, a member since 1982 whose four children were baptized and raised in the church. "It's unthinkable to me, to most of us, that it could belong to them because of a clause most of us didn't know about." the rest