Church Assets Must Serve the Church: Cayman’s New Law on Church Property and Governance Takes Effect

• Cayman’s Churches Incorporation (Amendment) Act 2025 has come into force
• Incorporated churches must have boards of officers with clear powers
• Church assets and income must be applied only to the church’s purposes
• The law also updates provisions on property held by incorporated churches

A new law setting out how incorporated churches in the Cayman Islands hold and manage their property and money has come into force, the Cayman Compass reported in September 2025. The government issued a commencement order for the Churches Incorporation (Amendment) Act 2025, which a government spokesman said was meant to “update and strengthen” the original laws and “modernise the governance arrangements for incorporated churches”.

Under the changes, incorporated churches must have boards of officers with the power to act on the church’s behalf. All church assets and income must be applied solely to advancing the church’s purposes, in line with the rules for registered non-profit organisations. The amendment also updates the provisions dealing with the property held by incorporated churches and corrects references to religious bodies so that their names and jurisdictions are accurate.

The timing is not accidental. According to the report, the changes bring Cayman into line with Caribbean Financial Action Task Force standards ahead of a 2027 evaluation of the territory’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework.

Church leaders welcomed the law. Andrew Ebanks, lead pastor of Agape Family Worship Centre in George Town and a member of the Cayman Ministers’ Association executive, said churches “already comply with them under other existing laws such as the Non-Profit Organisations Act.” He said many churches had wanted change because the old law was “out of date and, in some cases, completely conflicted with other, more modern legislation,” and that the update covered both how churches run themselves internally and how they stay compliant with wider government procedures.

Jamaica’s churches own a great deal of land and buildings, often held through trustees, incorporation acts passed decades ago or informal arrangements that have never been updated. Cayman’s move is a useful reference point: clear boards with defined powers, a rule that church assets serve church purposes only, and accurate records of who holds what property. With regional financial scrutiny tightening, Jamaican denominations and diaspora congregations that give to church building funds back home would do well to check that their own governing documents and property records are up to date.

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