A website for the Presbyterian Lay Committee, a conservative advocacy group, listed 35 congregations that had started the process of separating from the denomination since July. The First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, with more than 4,000 members, is the largest to take part in the exodus.

A Presbyterian court, in a case with implications for dozens of congregations exiting a denomination divided over homosexuality, convened on Thursday to decide if a California parish may break away with property worth millions of dollars.

Testimony began before the Synod of the Pacific, consisting of ministers and church elders from throughout the West, on a case stemming from a decision by the Community Presbyterian Church of Danville, an affluent San Francisco suburb, to join a more conservative denomination.

A San Francisco-area church governing body agreed in 2010 to allow the Danville congregation to keep real estate that had been appraised at nearly $14 million after its parishioners voted to split from the mainline Presbyterian Church U.S.A.

Critics of the move, however, have argued that the regional governing body lacked authority to approve the property transfer.

“We are here today because we believe the Presbytery of San Francisco has made an unauthorized gift of property,” Joan Blackstone, a retired lawyer and church elder who represents opponents of the property transfer, said in opening statements.

Thursday’s trial highlights deep divisions within the parent church and its 2 million members, as well as other mainstream Protestant denominations, over the ordination of gay clergy and blessing of same-sex unions.

Although it does not allow ministers to perform same-sex marriages, the Presbyterian Church allows its ministers to bless gay unions.

The synod’s trial, held in a hotel banquet room near the San Francisco Airport, will decide whether the presbytery properly used the church’s so-called “gracious-dismissal” policy to allow the Danville parish to leave with its buildings and more than 7 acres of land held in trust for the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.

The committee of local ministers “considered, prayed about it and decided the buildings should continue to be used by the Danville congregation as they continue to do God’s work,” the Rev. Joan Huff, a San Francisco minister who represents the presbytery, told the tribunal. “Grace is not always fair. Grace cannot be monetized. It cannot be bought, earned or won.”

“It if could, it would cease to be grace,” she said.

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Read behind the scene details of this case from The Layman here

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