The congregation will have to raise $175,000 within the next two months and take out a new mortgage to pay the $550,000 settlement.

A Lancaster, NY congregation will pay $550,000 to the denomination it was formerly affiliated with, settling a contentious legal battle that wound up in State Appellate Court. (Lancaster is an older, middle-class suburb just east of Buffalo.)

Lancaster Presbyterian Church had been in a civil court tussle for two years with the Presbytery of Western New York and the Presbyterian Church USA over ownership of the historic worship space on Broadway and Lake Avenue.

“I think there’s a growing sense of a final resolution of this in sight, and we’re looking forward to a celebration when we have all of this resolved,” said the Rev. Kelly Negus, pastor of Lancaster Presbyterian.

After years of disagreement with the national denomination over social issues and Bible interpretation, Lancaster church members voted unanimously in 2008 to break away and affiliate with a smaller, more conservative denominational body, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

The congregation of several hundred people then sued to gain ownership of the property.

In two separate court rulings, judges sided with the Presbytery of Western New York and the Presbyterian Church USA. The Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, declined to consider the case, which had the potential to set precedent for other property skirmishes between denominations and individual congregations.