N.Y. Religious Corporations Law § 47: Free churches in communion with the Protestant Episcopal church

§ 47. Free churches in communion with the Protestant Episcopal church.

Whenever the trustees of any free church in communion with the

Protestant Episcopal church heretofore or hereafter organized under the

provisions of article nine of this act shall desire to change the

management of its affairs and the form of government of the corporation

by substituting a vestry in place of such trustees, such change may be

made in the following manner: The trustees of any free church having

first obtained the written consent of the ecclesiastical authority of

the diocese to such change may by an affirmative vote of not less than

two-thirds determine by resolution reciting the consent of such

ecclesiastical authority and duly recorded in the minutes of such church

to change the management of its affairs by substituting a vestry in

place of such trustees to manage the affairs of such corporation and

free church with the same powers, duties and privileges as are now

possessed and exercised by churchwardens and vestrymen in churches of

the Protestant Episcopal church organized under this article, but

subject to the provisions of section one hundred and eighty-three of

this chapter and for the purposes set forth in the certificate of

incorporation of such free church and for no other purposes; such

resolution shall fix the day, either a Sunday or a secular day, upon

which the annual election shall be held, the number to constitute such

vestry which shall be two churchwardens and either three, six, nine,

twelve, fifteen, eighteen, twenty-one or twenty-four vestrymen as may be

determined, and shall also designate the persons to be such

churchwardens, and vestrymen, to act until the annual election, and

copies of such resolution, together with a statement of the vote of the

trustees adopting the same certified under the seal of the corporation

and verified by the president and secretary thereof, shall be filed in

the office of the secretary of state and also in the office of the clerk

of the county in which such church or corporation is located. Upon and

after the filing of such certificate, the churchwardens and vestrymen

named in said resolution and their successors in office, together with

the rector when there shall thereafter be one, shall form the vestry and

shall be the vestry and shall constitute the corporation; and at the

first annual election the churchwardens and vestrymen shall be divided

into classes and their respective terms of office fixed and shall be

elected by the persons qualified to vote for the churchwardens and

vestrymen in churches or congregations of the Protestant Episcopal

church and the provisions of this article shall govern such election and

all future elections and all acts of such vestry, subject to the

provisions of section one hundred and eighty-three of this chapter.