A bill to give congregations that leave their denominations leverage to retain control of their properties has died in Virginia's state Senate.
Sponsoring Sen. William Mims recommended that the measure be referred back to a law committee, effectively killing it Monday, but said he hoped the issue can be reintroduced in next year's legislative session.
The bill would have allowed seceding congregations to be independent of any church, diocese or society. Currently, breakaway congregations are limited to joining another branch of their church or society.
The proposal created an uproar among Virginia religious leaders who said it was drafted due to dissent in the Episcopal Church over consecration of the church's first openly gay bishop. But Mims said the bill had nothing to do with the Episcopal situation and involved technical questions raised by a 2002 federal court ruling.
Critics of the bill maintained the legislature has no place involving itself in religious property disputes.