Religious leaders in the state apparently have sidetracked a bill pending in the Virginia Senate that would change the way some denominations settle property disputes.

The bill would interfere, critics say, in what is known as the "trust clause" used by hierarchical denominations such as the Episcopal and United Methodist churches. In those, while a congregational board of trustees holds legal title to property, it does so "in trust" for the larger church, which has the final say.

The legislation appears to allow a simple majority of members in any denomination to vote to break away from the denomination, taking their property with them.

Critics allege that the bill is a ploy to allow conservative Episcopalians upset by their church's recent approval of a noncelibate gay bishop and its stance on same-sex unions to take over church property in defiance of church law and leave the denomination.

The bill would constitute "interference by the state of Virginia into the way denominations and churches handle internal affairs," said the Right Rev. Neff Powell, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, based in Roanoke.

The full Senate has repeatedly delayed debate on the measure because of the growing concern. The bill should come up for a final vote in the chamber late this week or early next week.

Sen. Bill Mims, the Leesburg Republican sponsoring Senate Bill 1305, said the legislation is a direct response to a federal court ruling overturning 18th-century Virginia law that dealt with church incorporation and property issues, not the current discord among Episcopalians.

Mims, a member of a conservative Episcopal church who handles church-related real estate matters in his law practice, said the court's finding for the Rev. Jerry Falwell in 2002 raises constitutional issues about the current property law.

It's only a matter of time, Mims said, before another judge overturns the law, especially given the level of debate among Episcopalians. Because judges cannot rewrite law, the issue would remain murky until the General Assembly addressed the matter, perhaps months later.

Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, disagrees and circulated to his Senate colleagues a copy of a resolution from the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia opposing the bill.

"What the bill is about is having the state take a role in internal church discussions," said Deeds, an active Presbyterian. "In my view, that is a breach of the wall of separation of church and state."

Deeds said he would not second-guess the motivations of his colleague. But he said he believes that the state has no business overturning hundreds of years of church tradition, and he speculated that many of the committee members who endorsed the bill were not aware of its ramifications or strong opposition in the religious community.

The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, an education and lobbying group in Richmond, wants the bill postponed a year.

"We all want to make sure the Virginia code is clear - that we're doing what's best for Virginia," said the Rev. Douglas Smith, the center's director.

Bishop James Mauney, head of the Salem-based Virginia Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said he didn't believe the bill would have much effect on his denomination. Nevertheless, he was concerned about "how it came through - the lack of any consultation with denominations across the commonwealth."

"Every denomination has its own theological understanding of why it is structured the way it is," Mauney said.

Baptist churches, for instance, are independent, and property ownership is decided by majority votes. And the bill's language seems to exempt Roman Catholic churches from its provisions because their property is legally owned by a bishop, not trustees.