I'm actually a little surprised they ruled the way they did.

Most churches in Au own their own buildings, whether they're fairly autonomouse (e.g. Baptist) or part of a heirarchy (e.g. Anglican). If they're "just" a church, like most of them, they have a trust organisation in their denomination that helps when they do major building works and borrowing money etc. If they're not "just" a church, they will have a company of their own to do it. But in the end, they still own their building.

I wonder if this congregation could have gotten around that problem by setting up a 'transaction' for their new Anglican congregation to 'purchase' the bulding of their old Episcopalian congregation. Sounds messy, business-wise, but it could have satisfied the spirit and letter of the law whilst the congregation changed their affiliation.

Wade.