§ 161. Administration of Church Property

In the early times of the Church, when every smaller locality had its own bishop, and when church property was very small and consisted entirely of the offerings that the faithful brought to the church at the time of worship, the administration of that property was very simple and was carried out personally by the bishop himself, who set aside from those offerings one part for worship and for the upkeep of the place where that worship was held, a second part for the support of himself and the clergy, and a third for aid to the poor members.[1] He did this according to his own personal discretion, answering for the propriety of his administration to God alone, as apostolic canon 38 expresses it;[2] and the general strictness of Christian morals, and the trust that bishops enjoyed among the faithful, kept them free of any suspicion in this administration of theirs. But afterward, when church property multiplied, when the Church began to acquire immovable goods and to receive regular income, it became impossible for bishops to administer all this property by themselves, and the need for greater precision and order in administration than had existed before made itself felt. For this reason particular persons were appointed alongside each bishop to take care of that church property. These are known in the canonical sources as oikonomoi, who, under the supreme oversight of the bishop, either alone or with several assistants, conducted the administration of all the property of the episcopal church, or eparchy, in question.[3] When it was then established that bishops might no longer be appointed in small localities, but presbyters instead, and parishes in the present-day sense came into being, so that as a result church goods had to be specialized, the earlier arrangement too had to be altered, and the administration of parish property passed to the parish priest, who himself carried it out under the responsibility of the bishop, as chief pastor, on whom the parish in question depended. But in this administration of parish property, too, there happened in the course of time the same thing that had happened with regard to bishops and eparchial property when that property multiplied; and for this reason several churchwardens, guardians, or trustees were appointed from among the lay members of the parish in question, who, under the immediate oversight of the parish priest, and under the responsibility of the eparchial bishop, administered all the property belonging to that parish. For the better assurance that the most worthy parishioners would be appointed to this office, it was recognized as expedient that the whole church congregation should also take part in the election of the churchwardens in question, thereby becoming an indirect participant in the administration of church property itself; and this is justified, among other things, by the fact that, in case of any need on the Church’s part, all the members of the church congregation in question are called upon to meet that need.[4]

In the bond into which the Church entered with the state, beginning with the fourth century, the Church gladly accepted, and sometimes even herself sought, the help of the state authority in the administration of church goods.[5] From this, and from the mutual interest that existed between Church and state in matters of the common welfare,[6] arose all those laws of the Greco-Roman emperors on the securing, from every side, of church property, as well as their right to oversee the administration of church property.[7]

Today the administration of church property is regulated by the particular laws of the several autocephalous churches and by the corresponding ordinances of the state authority. Apart from the churches within the Ottoman empire, all the other churches, with regard to the administration of their […]