Who owns religious properties in the US?

Answer 1

Generally, a church must register as a religious corporation in order to own title to real property and enjoy tax exempt status. The various denominations use various entities to hold title to real estate. For instance, Catholic Church real estate holdings in Western Massachusetts are held in the name of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield. Some denominations have a central regional or national organization that holds title to real property such as, "The Presbytery of Southern New England" or "The Church of God in Christ, Inc.". In that type of system, individual churches are owned by the parent ecclesiastical organization to prevent local churches from leaving the national association and thinking they can take the real estate with them. In some cases individual parishes may hold title in the name of their pastor, their trustees or board of directors. Some small independent churches incorporate as a religious corporation and then hold title by that name. For example: the "Unitarian Universalist Church of East Longmeadow, a religious corporation organized under the laws of Massachusetts". There are numerous ways by which churches own their real estate, however, all require the establishment of some official status under statutory laws of the state where the real estate is located in order to be officially recognized

Answer 2

christian