N.Y. Religious Corporations Law § 45: Changing date of annual election, number and terms of office of vestrymen and terms of office of churchwardens in Protestant Episcopal ch...

§ 45. Changing date of annual election, number and terms of office of

vestrymen and terms of office of churchwardens in Protestant Episcopal

churches heretofore incorporated. If the vestry of a Protestant

Episcopal parish, heretofore incorporated, shall by resolution,

recommend that the date of the annual election be changed to another

day, either a Sunday or a secular day, or that the number of vestrymen

be changed to three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen, eighteen, twenty-one or

twenty-four, and that the terms of office of the churchwardens be

changed so that one warden shall be elected annually, notice of such

recommendation shall be included in the notice of the next annual

election of such parish, or in the notice of a special meeting to be

held not less than six months before the time fixed for holding the next

annual election thereafter, and be submitted to such annual or special

meeting. If such recommendation be ratified by such meeting, the

presiding officer thereof and at least two qualified voters present

thereat, shall execute and acknowledge a certificate setting forth such

resolution of the vestry; the fact that notice thereof had been given

with the notice of the annual election, or with the notice of the

special meeting, as the case may be; that such meeting had ratified the

same; the date determined upon for the annual election of the parish;

the number of vestrymen so decided on; and the fact that the meeting

determined to thereafter elect churchwardens, so that the term of one

warden shall expire annually. Such certificate shall be filed in the

office of the clerk of the county in which the original certificate of

incorporation is filed and recorded. If the meeting determine to change

the date of the annual election, the next annual election shall be held

on the day determined on at such meeting, and the terms of the vestrymen

and churchwardens which, pursuant to law, would expire at the next

annual election shall expire and their successors shall be elected on

such day. If the meeting determine to change the number of vestrymen and

manner of electing wardens and vestrymen, there shall be elected at the

first annual election thereafter, one-third of the number of vestrymen

so determined on, to hold office for three years; one-third thereof to

hold office for two years; and one-third thereof to hold office for one

year; and one churchwarden to hold office for one year, and one to hold

for two years; and thereafter at the annual election there shall be

elected one-third of the number of vestrymen determined on at such

meeting and one churchwarden. Any Protestant Episcopal parish,

heretofore incorporated, which has changed the number of its vestrymen

and the manner of electing wardens and vestrymen pursuant to the

provisions of this section, may make further changes in the number of

its vestrymen in the manner provided in section forty-four of this

chapter.