Church Property

[CelticRebel]

In Orthodoxy, does the local congregation own the property, or is it owned by the larger church?

I know I'm asking a lot of questions.

 

[ArmyMatt]

pretty sure it is owned by the diocese

 

[buzuxi02]

Depends actually. But dont know the actual policies of each diocese and or individual cirvumstances.

 

[Antony in Tx]

Since the local parish does not exist separate from the diocese, I'd bet that the diocese holds title to all real assets. Remember that a priest serves at the permission and blessing of the bishop, and the antimension belongs to the Bishop, not the Priest and without that, there is no blessing to celebrate any Holy Mysteries.

 

[E.C.]

In the US the property is mostly owned by the parish itself.

 

[All4Christ]

We just purchased the property for our new parish with money from our parish's bank accounts. I believe it is owned by the parish and not by the diocese; otherwise I don't see why the parish would be paying for it all. I could be wrong...but that wouldn't make sense in our situation. We are an OCA parish...maybe each diocese is different?

 

[Antony in Tx]

One thought I have is that perhaps having the parishes own the properties/assets, it lessens the depths of the pockets at the diocese level so that lawsuits, etc are not as attractive. I'm sure it has much to do with legal advice and not Holy Tradition.

 

[Mary of Bethany]

We just purchased the property for our new parish with money from our parish's bank accounts. I believe it is owned by the parish and not by the diocese; otherwise I don't see why the parish would be paying for it all. I could be wrong...but that wouldn't make sense in our situation. We are an OCA parish...maybe each diocese is different?

We bought our property as a parish. The diocese helps us in getting loans & such, but the property is in our name. Also OCA.

 

[CelticRebel]

We bought our property as a parish. The diocese helps us in getting loans & such, but the property is in our name. Also OCA.

So, the OCA allows its churches to own their property. Interesting. I think that is not the case in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, the Body with the church next closest to me in distance. I didn't know it varied from one Orthodox Body to another. I thought they all had the same policies and practices.

 

[buzuxi02]

I believe it varies even within diocese. Probably older cathedrals are owned by the archdiocese. But most parishes are not thats why they can ask for canonical releases. The deed holders of monasteries AFAIK are not held by archdioceses.