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 determined to change the date of the annual election, the next annual election of the corpora tion shall be held on the day in the week beginning with the first Sunday in Advent, determined on by such meeting, and the terms of the vestrymen and churchwardens which, pursuant to law, would expire at the next annual election of such corporation, shall expire, and their successors shall be elected on such day. If the meeting determine to change the number of vestry. men and manner of electing wardens and 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 of such parish there shall be elected onethird of the number of vestrymen determined on at such meeting and one churchwarden. [See form, No. 15. The portion of the section relating to the change in the number of vestrymen was substantially contained in L. 1813, ch. 60, § 1, sub. 17, otherwise the section is new.] § 36. Changing the qualification of voters and the qualifications of wardens and vestrymen.- If the vestry of a Protestant Episcopal parish heretofore incorporated shall by resolution recommend that the qualification of voters and the qualifications of wardens and vestrymen be changed to conform in both cases to the requirement of section thirty of this satute, notice of such recommendation or recommendations shall be included in the notice of the next annual meeting of such parish, and be submitted to such meeting. If such recommendation or recommendations 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 such annual meeting, and that such meeting had ratified the same. 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. [See form, No. 16. As churches incorporated before 1828 are not subject to provisions of law affecting their corporate charters (People ex rel. Sturges v. Keese, 27 Hun, 483), an action of the corporation would probably be necessary in conformity with this section to adopt the provisions of this act as to the qualifications of voters, vestrymen and churchwardens contained in § 30.] ARTICLE II. Special Provisions for the Incorporation and Government of Roman Catholic and Greek Churches. Section 50. Incorporation of Roman Catholic and Greek churches. 51. Government of incorporated Roman Catholic § 50. Incorporation of Roman Catholic and Greek churches.An unincorporated Roman Catholic church, or an unincorporated Christian Orthodox Catholic church of the Eastern Confession, in this state may become incorporated as a church by executing, acknowledging and filing a certificate of incorporation, stating the corporate name by which such church shall be known and the county, town, city or village where its principal place of worship is, or is intended to be, located. A certificate of incorporation of an unincorporated Roman Catholic church shall be executed and acknowledged by the Roman Catholic archbishop or bishop, and the vicar-general of the diocese in which its place of worship is, and by the rector of the church, and by two laymen, members of such church who shall be selected by such officials, or by a majority of such officials. A certificate of incorporation of an unincorporated Christian Orthodox Catholic church of the Eastern Confession shall be executed and acknowledged by the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, and the consul-general of Russia to the United States, then acknowledged and received as such by the United States. On filing such certificate such church shall be a corporation by the name stated in the certificate. [See form, No. 17. L. 1863, ch. 45, § 1, sub. 1; R. S., 8th ed., 1889. L. 1871, ch. 12, § 1, sub. 1; R. S., Sth ed., 1890. Without material change in substance. The members of the church and congregation are the corporators of a Roman Catholic church, and the trustees simply the governing body. People's Bank v. St. Anthony's Roman Cath. Ch., 109 N. Y. 512. As to place of filing certificate, see § 3 and cases cited. The general qualifications of incorporators, the naming of the corporation and other general regulations as to certificates, are provided by General Corp. L., §§ 3-9. The persons before whom acknowledgments may be taken are specified in statutory construction law, § 15.] Catholic and § 51. Government of incorporated Roman Greek churches.-The archbishop or bishop and the vicar-general of the diocese to which any incorporated Roman Catholic church belongs, the rector of such church, and their successors in office shall, by virtue of their offices, be trustees of such church. Two laymen, members of such incorporated church, selected by such officers or by a majority of them, shall also be trustees of such incorporated church, and such officers and such laymen trustees shall together constitute the board of trustees thereof. The two laymen signing the certificate of incorporation of an incorporated Roman Catholic church shall be the two laymen trustees thereof during the first year of its corporate existence. The term of office of the two laymen trustees of an incorporated Roman Catholic church shall be one year. Whenever the office of any such layman trustee shall become vacant by expiration of term of office or otherwise, his successor shall be appointed from members of the church, by such officers or a majority of them. No act or proceeding of the trustees of any such incorporated church shall be valid without the sanction 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 sanction of the vicargeneral or of the administrator of such diocese. The envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, and the consul-general of Russia to the United States, acknowledged and received as such, and their successors in office shall, by virtue of office, be the trustees of every incorporated Christian Orthodox Catholic church of the Eastern Confession in this state. The trustees of any such church shall have power to fix and change the salary of the rector and his assistant, appointed or commissioned according to the rules and usages of the denomination to which such church belongs. [L. 1863, ch. 45, § 1, subs. 1-2; R. S., 8th ed., 1889. L. 1871, ch. 12, § 1, subs. 1-2; R. S., 8th ed., 1890. For powers of trustees in relation to the property of the corporation, sec §§ 4, 5 and 11, and notes. For powers of trustees in relation to the minister, see notes to § 5 under head of "Minister."] ARTICLE IV. Special Provisions for the Incorporation and Government of Reformed Dutch, Reformed Presbyterian and Lutheran Churches. Section 60. Decision by a Reformed Dutch or Reformed Presbyterian church, as to system of incorporation and government. 61. Decision by Evangelical Lutheran church as to system of incorporation and government. 32. Incorporation of Reformed Dutch, Reformed Presby- 63. Consistory of a Reformed church in America. Section 65. Reformed Presbyterian churches, changing system of choosing trustees. Pew rents and minister's salary. 66. Evangelical Lutheran churches, changing system of choosing trustees. § 60. Decision by a Reformed Dutch or Reformed Presbyterian church as to system of incorporation and government.— The minister or ministers, if there be any, and the elders and deacons of an unincorporated church in connection with the Reformed church in America, the true Reformed Dutch church in the United States of America, or with the Reformed Presbyterian church, may determine to incorporate such church in pursuance of this article, or to call a meeting of such unincorporated church for the purpose of deciding whether such church shall be incorporated in pursuance of the next article of this chapter, entitled "Special provisions for the incorporation and government of churches of other denominations." If such ministers, elders and deacons determine to call such meeting for such purpose, then such church may be incorporated and shall be governed after its incorporation in pursuance of the provisions of the next article of this chapter, except such provisions thereof as are applicable to churches of a single denomination only, and except that the notice of the meeting for incorporation shall be signed by such ministers, elders and deacons or a majority of them, and no other signatures thereto shall be necessary to its validity; and, if it be a Reformed church in America, it shall, after incorporation, be governed by such of the provisions of this article as relates to its consistory and to the choice of its minister. [L. 1813, ch. 60, § 2; R. S., 8th ed., 1881. § 61. Decision by Lutheran churches as to system of incorporation and government -A meeting for the purpose of incor porating an unincorporated Evangelical Lutheran church must be called and held in pursuance of the provisions of the next |