Property, Local Church: Ownership

4680. Local property within an established district may be held by the local church or by the district, as decided upon by the district conference (1180:19–20). In those districts where the local churches are to hold their own property, all grants, conveyances, devises, gifts, transfers, and assignments now owned or hereafter acquired of any property, real, personal, or mixed, to or for any unincorporated local church or any organization, board, or similar body connected thereto, shall be held by and/or conveyed to its duly elected board of trustees, and to their successors in office and their assigns, as the board of trustees of such local church, in trust for the benefit and use of the members and ministers of The Wesleyan Church, subject to its Discipline, regulations, and appointments as from time to time legislated and declared, and shall contain the appropriate trust clause as set forth in 4610 (4590; 4620). An omission of the name of any or all of the trustees shall not render any instrument invalid. (The regulations for an incorporated local church are set forth in 4000–4070.) In those districts where the district is to hold local property (323:8), such local property shall be held as set forth in 4140 or 4830.