N.Y. Religious Corporations Law § 5: General powers and duties of trustees of religious corporations

§ 5. General powers and duties of trustees of religious corporations.

The trustees of every religious corporation shall have the custody and

control of all the temporalities and property, real and personal,

belonging to the corporation and of the revenues therefrom, and shall

administer the same in accordance with the discipline, rules and usages

of the corporation and of the ecclesiastical governing body, if any, to

which the corporation is subject, and with the provisions of law

relating thereto, for the support and maintenance of the corporation,

or, providing the members of the corporation at a meeting thereof shall

so authorize, of some religious, charitable, benevolent or educational

object conducted by said corporation or in connection with it, or with

the denomination, if any, with which it is connected; and they shall not

use such property or revenues for any other purpose or divert the same

from such uses. They may transfer all or any part of the real or

personal estate of such corporation to such bank, trust company, savings

bank or savings and loan association organized or existing under the

laws of the state of New York, or to a national banking association,

federal savings bank or federal savings and loan association having a

principal, branch or trust office located in the state of New York as

may be designated by them or to a holding company, organized under the

laws of the state of New York, of the same religious denomination, such

property to be held in trust or in safekeeping or custody, to collect

the income thereof and pay over the same to the trustees of such

religious corporation at such times and in such manner as shall be

agreed upon, and they may also, in their discretion, delegate and grant

to the trustee or custodian designated by them all or any portion of the

powers, responsibilities and discretionary authority possessed by them

with respect to the retention and the investment and reinvestment of

such property or any part thereof, and may from time to time modify such

powers delegated by them or designate successor or different trustees or

custodians within the limits and subject to the regulations and

restrictions contained in this section. The trustees of an incorporated

Roman Catholic Church, or of a Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, shall

not transfer any property as herein provided without the consent of the

archbishop or bishop of the diocese to which such church belongs or in

case of their absence or inability to act, without the consent of the

vicar general or administrator of such diocese. By-laws may be adopted

or amended, by a two-thirds vote of the qualified voters present and

voting at the meeting for incorporation or at any subsequent meeting,

after written notice, embodying such by-laws or amendment, has been

openly given at a previous meeting, and also in the notices of the

meeting at which such proposed by-laws or amendment is to be acted upon.

By-laws thus adopted or amended shall control the action of the

trustees. But this section does not give to the trustees of an

incorporated church, any control over the calling, settlement, dismissal

or removal of its minister, or the fixing of his salary; or any power to

fix or change the times, nature or order of the public or social worship

of such church.