MONROEVILLE, Pa. — After an overwhelming vote here over the weekend by the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh that created the second schism with the national church since the 2003 election and consecration of an openly gay Episcopal bishop, both sides were hoping for a simple resolution.

The issue: Who owns what among the millions of dollars’ worth of diocesan and parish property?

It is a huge concern for both sides after the vote on Saturday, which realigned the majority of the 74 parishes of the Pittsburgh diocese with a more conservative branch of the church, in South America. On Saturday, 119 of 191 lay members voted in favor of leaving the national church, as did 121 of 160 clergy members.

“The people who have given and sustained these places ought to be able to keep them,” said Bishop Robert Duncan, who was deposed last month as Pittsburgh’s bishop because of his push for secession and is expected to be appointed to lead the realigned churches at their first convention on Nov. 7.

Those who opposed secession, not surprisingly, did not share Duncan’s view.

“The idea that you can vote to leave the church, and have the assets and the finances go with you is nonsensical,” said the Rev. Harold Lewis, a leader of those in the diocese opposed to secession.

Pittsburgh became the second Episcopal diocese to leave the national church over a theological battle that had been brewing for 30 years and boiled over with the consecration of an openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, in New Hampshire five years ago.

The Diocese of San Joaquin, in Fresno, Calif., voted to leave the national church last December.