KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Visitors to a tiny church in Independence notice three things in its sanctuary:

The upright piano with hymn book.

The three stained-glass crosses in the west wall.

The black, plastic trash bag stretched across the north wall.

The plastic covers a bronze seal whose design, incorporating a small child standing with a lion and a lamb, is familiar to many Kansas City-area residents.

To the approximately 30 baptized members of The Church of Jesus Christ, Devon Park Restoration Branch, the seal is considered a sacred symbol, representing their faith and traditions in the old Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

To a federal court judge, however, it is a trademark owned by a much bigger church.

U.S. District Judge Gary Fenner in the spring granted a preliminary injunction to the Community of Christ, headquartered in Independence, which in 2001 changed its name from the RLDS. The ruling prohibits the Devon Park Restoration Branch from using the lion and lamb symbol, as well as the RLDS name.

Both sides are preparing for a trial next spring.

After the injunction ruling, Devon Park Branch leaders removed an old RLDS flag from their sanctuary. They applied duct tape to the church sign out front, covering the words "Reorganized" and "of Latter Day Saints."

But rather than to try to take down the heavy bronze seal, attached by threaded screws to the interior wall studs, they opted to stretch a trash bag across it.

"We thought the trash bag was appropriate," said James Noland, a Devon Park Branch elder.

Now the trash bag serves as a metaphor for the awkward relations between the Community of Christ — which claims about 250,000 members in 50 countries around the world — and a much smaller network of "Restoration" branches, about 25 of which are located between Wichita and St. Louis.

Though this rift has been ongoing since the 1980s, the disagreement has moved to federal court, with the Devon Park Branch committing about $200,000 in legal fees to fight the lawsuit. In 2007, the Community of Christ filed a similar lawsuit against a Restoration congregation in Raymore.

The new litigation, to one observer, represents an uptick in the discord and a continuing resolve by members of the Restoration community.

"They just really want that name," said Bill Russell, an emeritus history professor at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, operated by the Community of Christ. "They are the ones who believe they truly represent the theology of the church of a generation ago, the church of the 1950s."