CHURCH OWNERSHIP AND AMERICAN LAW 

Now that you have learned how the Ecclesiastical-Ecumenical Province can bring you a Bishop or Priest to Sanctify or Consecrate your current or new church or oratory, it is also good to know how the United States Constitution gives your Congregation the right to operate, whether as an established church, or in your home or other structure as a church. 

Before we get make mention of that liberty, let us also call out to our manually capable “DIY” Brethren, to let them know that there are many blueprints and plans for tiny houses that you can construct and convert into your own churches. Moreover, there are dependable shed-builders that we at TACA have used, who have made and delivered to us small occupiable units originating from their shed plans. If you add the interior paneling and utilities, these structures are rather reasonably priced. The request to them is simply that they would convert their shed structures into “cabins.” They are quite familiar with their receiving of this popular request, which typically arises from within the “tiny-house” community. Their contact information is below:

Stoltzfus Structures, (610) 593-7700, www.mysheds.com

Adirondack Storage Barns, (315) 389-5032, www.adirondackstoragebarns.com

Discussion: The blight and permanent closure of churches was once noted by a charitable minister during his personal outreach to locate a new building to house a ministry within the Western Rite division of the Russian Orthodox Church. Seeing innumerable Roman-Catholic and Protestant churches that had recently been abandoned was awful.

They had shut themselves down to offset the cost to their dioceses and prebysteries of age-old claims by litigants against their episcopates. The lapsing of ethics oversight by elders had, since 1776, sculpted clergies ill-suited to cease their moral degeneracy and desist in their participation with the corruptive filth of the world. They had engendered upon their polities a debilitating darkness from which the Church is always supposed to set itself apart.

“Truly,” remarked the minister, “the Church, since its colonial-American inception, should have remained missional. Thus operating from within tents until America had straightened itself out, the Church in America should have been keeping an open-ended vigil that the United States would one day become an actual sacerdotal government or an ecclesiastical polity, before it built or subsidized the building of all its cathedrals, megachurches, and parishes, most of which are falling into ruin.”

A few months later, the minister donned his “Covid-19 Mask” and drove away from his Parish, and bypassed other, suddenly closed churches in his car. As the pandemic-lockdown conceivers excused as being “essential businesses,” box stores, taverns, and strip clubs, he noted that all the churches were being shut down by Federal and state mandates.

Inspired, he conceived of creating his own Congregation according to a canonical charter whose Dominion over spaces to hold its gatherings could never be revoked. The canon exists as the Church Mandate of the Bible, which is printed below, along with the American Constitutional Liberty that allows for congregations never to stop gathering.

Conflict Over Property:  The Church, like any other occupier of property owned by a non-government party (such as a Parish, Presbytery, or Diocese) in the United States, possesses merely the legal deed to occupy its bought place. The issuer of a deed is the government. Only the government’s properties own more than their mere deed and can never be evicted.

At the same time, although your church may share with the government the power to evict people on its aligning sidewalks, your church itself sadly only nominally (by its real-estate Title) inhabits even its own structures in terms of these areas’ being merely “occupiable by revokable charter.” 

However, you are allowed to gather anywhere as a Congregation. More on this is discussed below.

Ultimately Unfulfillable Legal/Fiscal Authority of the Religious and Laity Over Lands:

Even if church or individual owner has purchased the Allodial Patent and mineral rights to the terrain where it owns its Title, the U.S. government can pursue an action of emergency or detainder against said occupant(s) by the authority of eminent domain or an emergency if it wanted.

Compromised Material Reality of Church Ownership:

Even with a legal deed, a landowner such as a church, does not fully “own” property in the U.S. because ownership is actually a bundle of rights held under government authority, rather than absolute ownership of the land itself. True ownership is limited by taxes, liens, easements, adverse possession, and eminent domain, where government or third parties can claim or restrict property usage.

How It Is True That Churches, Pastors, and Laity, Like all Property Owners, Do Not Fully Own Their Property:

·        Church Tax Obligations:  Although 501(C) status frees churches from nearly all tax liability, a church is actually obligated to pay property taxes on non-exempt, commercial, or unused property, depending on state law. Structures or land used for fund-raising, outreach, or entertainment are also taxable.

 

·        Government Tax Obligations:  Where individuals are concerned, property taxes must be paid, and failure to do so allows the government to seize the property regardless of the deed. Sometimes a church may occupy a property owned by one of its senior ministers, which makes it taxable.

 

 

·        Eminent Domain:  The government holds the right to take  land for public use, often without the owner’s consent, provided “just compensation” is given.

 

·        Liens and Mortgages:  If a church has a mortgage, the lender has a legal interest in the property. Liens from unpaid debts, contractors, or tax authorities can restrict a congregation’s ability to sell or manage the property.

 

·        Easements and Restrictions: Other entities may have the legal right to use church land for specific purposes (such as utility lines or access roads).

 

·        Title Defects:  A deed to a church or any property may be invalid if it was hitherto (even years before that church even existed) ever forged, incorrectly recorded, or if a previous owner did not actually have the right to transfer it. Ownership thus falls liable to claims. Thus, only God gives church ownership, not man or his laws or documentation, none of which are dependable

 

·        Adverse Possession:  Another person or entity may gain legal ownership of a property by occupying it for a specific period of time.

 

·        Government Emergency:  The legal authority for the government to close buildings, including churches, during a disaster, a pandemic, or other emergency primarily rests on the police powers reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, by which states reserve the authority to enact state-emergency actions, including the closure of inhabitable spaces.

 

·        Federal Public Health Authority:  The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) has authority under Section 319 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. § 247d) to declare a public health emergency and take “appropriate action” which has the legal power over individual or church-ownership habitation.

 

CHURCH OWNERSHIP – THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND THE BIBLE

Axiom:  The Fee-Simple Church Can Gather Anywhere It Safely Judges as a
Congregation, Thus Being a Church

Premise 1: Every American citizen has the permanent right as the
deed/title-owner of the property it licenses from the United States to call its
occupied space a “home” or a “church” or anything it likes,
but only as its being there perpetuates its residency of the property in
permanent fee-simple status.

Premise 2: Essentially, in the U.S., nearly all property is therefore held in
“fee simple,” which means a given church owns the rights to the
property, but that ownership is always  subordinate to the state’s power.

Premise 3: But the identity of a church is not an institution that can
be nullified by material reality such a “shutdown” or by political definition.
If a church building, say, is shut down by a government, it is still a church
by its living sanctification. It is a Body which stands at ready to assemble or
re-assemble inside a living room, a basement, or a tent.

Premise 4: A church is also defined as a Congregation, the
“gathering,” which is protected by the Free-Exercise Clause of the
First Amendment giving its members the right to gather.

Conclusion: The Church is spiritually “owned” by God and is
permanently occupiable by people with their Faith, Hope, and Love (1
Corinthians 13:13) where two or more are gathered in God’s name (Matthew
18:20). The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment gives churches the
right to gather. God views this Congregation as the Church and the First
Amendment declares that the government has no right to stop its Congregation
from meeting. The government calls a church and its congregation and all its
meetings a “gathering.” It is this gathering, which the government
allows to have the Fee-Simple relationship to its property. This relationship
is the entitlement to land and structures the church or any person
“owns” over his/her property only insofar as the government may shut
it down to claim its governmental right over the property or literally at any
time it chooses to claim its property. But the “gathering” as the
“Congregation/Church” may gather together anywhere (in one’s home, oratory, shed, or church) and at any time in
America by both the First Amendment and by the “two or more gathered in my
name” verse of Matthew 18:20. Therefore, the pastor, motivated by the Word
of God may still elect to hold gatherings inside the church building or home of
two or more and thus choose to exercise his right to protest against stoppage,
legally by the Free-Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

 

Reconciliation of Legal/Fiscal Abstract Church to Government:

A church is permanently allowed to occupy, at the very least, a private home or property, as it did since the time of the Book of Acts, when, to the Sanhedrin and to pagan Rome, churching was actually illegal at home or elsewhere. However, to the U.S. government, a church is correctly—albeit solely—protected and known by its legal/fiscal abstract, which give churches inside of church buildings the authority at the very least to argue on behalf off their right to exist and to stay open. The abstract definition is:

 

·        Church Is the “Called-Out” Assembly: Rooted in the Greek word ekklesia, the fundamental abstract meaning is an assembly, a “calling together,” or a “gathering of called-out ones”. It signifies a group of people called out from the world to belong to God.

·        Conceptual: An abstract definition of a church goes beyond a physical building to describe a conceptual, spiritual, or sociological entity. In this sense, a church is generally defined as an assemblage of people, a community of faith, or the body of believers. 

·        Body of Christ: In theological terms, the church is the “body of Christ,” referring to a living organism of believers united with Christ as their head. It represents a spiritual, rather than just a formal, organization.

 

·        The Community/Family of God: The church is the family of God, where individuals are bound together in fellowship, sharing in spiritual life, and supporting one another, regardless of the physical location or structure.

·        The Universal (Invisible) Church: This represents the total, worldwide, and timeless body of all believers in Jesus Christ, both living and deceased.

·        The “Marks” of the Church: Abstractly, a church is identified by the presence of certain actions, namely the faithful preaching of the Word of God, the proper administration of sacraments or ordinances (e.g., baptism, communion), and the practice of church discipline.

·        A “Living Organism” vs. Organization: The church is sometimes distinguished as a “living organism” (people) rather than just a “mechanical organization.

·        Churches Accept Romans 13:1-7 as “churches,” because they are permitted to exist via the existence of their abstract definition.

·        Churches are under no obligation to follow a law that mandates that they go against God’s Will, as exemplified by  Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Daniel 3:16-18).

·        So long as the First and Fourteenth amendments (see definition below) allow churches to exist and (at least on paper) to stay open, and thus to defend themselves against closure and persecution under the Due Process of the Fifth Amendment, it is decisive that Romans 13:1-7 affirms the United States as having been given legal authority by God.

 

·        In summary, the abstract definition of a church is, to governments, the worldwide (or local) community of faith, united in Christ and gathered for worship, fellowship, and service, existing as a spiritual, rather than merely physical, entity. The Church’s relationship to government to government is 100-percent legal at all times when considered as an abstract.

 

The authority of churches to gather without interference, irrespective of law:

 

Even if church members go to jail for gathering, they are still being their church. They have Dominion over their church that is not shared with government.

 

First Amendment and Church:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”

 

Fourteenth Amendment and Church:

Ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. (including former slaves), guarantees “equal protection of the laws,” and prohibits states from depriving any person of “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”. It also addresses insurrectionists and debt.

 

·        The 14th Amendment does not explicitly mention “church gathering,” but it plays a critical role in religious liberty by applying the First Amendment’s protections against state and local governments, not just federal. This process, known as incorporation, ensures that rights like the free exercise of religion and the right to peaceably assemble apply to state laws.

 

 

Here is how the 14th Amendment relates to church gatherings:

 

·        Incorporation of Rights:  The Supreme Court has ruled that the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment makes the First Amendment’s religion clauses binding on the states. This means states cannot prohibit religious gatherings any more than Congress can.

·        Equal Protection:  The 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause requires that laws treating religious gatherings differently from “similarly situated” secular gatherings (like concerts or lectures) be closely scrutinized.

·        Neutrality in Restrictions:  While the government can impose general, neutral laws (e.g., safety or health regulations) that affect gatherings, the 14th Amendment (via the Free Exercise Clause) restricts states from specifically targeting or singling out religious groups for discriminatory treatment, as seen in cases regarding COVID-19 stay-at-home orders.

·        Freedom of Conscience:  The 14th Amendment protects the liberty of each person to “worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience”.

·        In Essence:  The 14th Amendment ensures that the protections for gathering for worship established in the First Amendment apply equally to all levels of government.

 

 

Conclusion:
Although the Federal and state governments of the United States can shut down church buildings in declaring an emergency, or by any chosen purpose, congregations and missions must still gather together and must peacefully resist prevention to meet by all public agencies, or even by its own members or ministers. Staying open is crucial in order to persist as a Congregation or Mission within the peaceful places where the Rector judges that gatherings must always happen, in order to fulfill worship. No church has full legal, fiscal, or political right that is knowable as being or practically protected or granted by government to possess its property in full, or to gather without interference except in declaring that the First and Fourteenth amendments guarantee these “rights,” which the government sometimes contradicts without punition or deterrence, except by God.

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The Church does, however, have the Dominion obliged to its people by the Bible (Genesis 1:26-28), to exist fully and never to stop existing and gathering. It sustains its Dominion to gather and operate, not as a full municipal right that is sustained and protected by any secular government constitution as a sacred thing or place, but as a free gift of God’s Grace to do so.

And without forfeiting its practice, liturgies, or pastoral guidance to internal church discouragement, fear, worry, or force, every Congregation and Mission shall continue meeting and operating always and wherever it judges and commands it should and can.

 

The Church Mandate of the Bible:

·    The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), which commands believers to go, make disciples of all nations, baptize them, and teach them to observe all of Christ’s commands. It also includes being a “pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). 

 

·        Evangelism: Proclaiming the Gospel to all nations.

 

·         Discipleship: Teaching believers to obey God’s commands.

 

·         Ordinances: Practicing Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

 

·         Fellowship and Edification: Devoting themselves to fellowship, prayer, and breaking of bread (Acts 2:42).

 

·         Defense of Truth: Upholding sound doctrine and refuting false teaching (1 Timothy 3:15;  2 Peter 2:3). 

 

·         The church is to serve as a witness for Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). 

·         No government can sanely mandate for, or against, what the Bible alone mandates.