CHAPTER XLII OF THE GENERAL LAWS. [CHAP. 723 OF 1895.] THE RELIGIOUS CORPORATIONS LAW. ARTICLE I. Provisions applicable to religious corporations generally (S$ 1-22). II. Special provisions for the incorporation and government of H. Special provisions for the incorporation and government of Roman Special provisions for the incorporation and government of Re- Special provisions for the incorporation and government of Bap- I. Special provisions for the incorporation and government of Con- I. Special provisions for the incorporation and government of H. Special provisions for the incorporation and government of two VHI. Laws repealed; when to take effect (§§ 110-111). ARTICLE I. PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO RELIGIOUS CORPORATIONS SECTION 1. Short title. 2. Definitions. 3. Filing and recording certificates of incorporation of religious 4. Property of unincorporated society transferred by its incorpora- 5. General powers and duties of trustees of religious corporations. 7. Acquisition of property by religious corporations for cemetery 8. Removal of human remains from one cemetery of a religious IN SECTION 9. Acquisition of property by two or more religious corporations for a common parsonage. 10. Correction and confirmation of conveyances to religious corpo rations. 11. Sale, mortgage and lease of real property of religious corpora tions. 12. Consolidation of incorporated churches. 13. Judicial investigation of amount of property of religious corpo rations. 14. Corporations with governing authority over churches. 15. Property of extinct churches. 16. Corporations for organizing and maintaining mission churches and Sunday schools. 17. Corporations for acquiring parsonages for presiding elders and camp-meeting grounds. 18. Application of this chapter to churches created by special laws. 19. Application of this chapter to churches incorporated prior to January first, eighteen hundred and twenty-eight. 20. Calling of a minister and so forth. 21. Worship. 22. Reservation as to Baptist and Congregational churches. § 1. Short title.-This chapter shall be known as the religious corporations law. § 2. Definitions.-A religious corporation is a corporation created for religious purposes. An incorporated church is a religious corporation created to enable its members to meet for divine worship or other religious observances. An unincorporated church is a congregation, society, or other assemblage of persons who are accustomed to statedly meet for divine worship or other religious observances, without having been incorporated for that purpose. The term minister, includes a clergyman, pastor, rector, priest, rabbi, or other person having authority from, or in accordance with, the rules and regulations of the governing ecclesiastical body of the denomination or order, if any, to which the church belongs, or otherwise from the church, to preside over and direct the spiritual affairs of the church. 3. Filing and recording certificates of incorporation of religious corporations.-The certificate of incorporation of a religious corporation shall be acknowledged or proved before an officer authorized to take the acknowledgment or proof of deeds or conveyances of real estate, to be recorded in the county in which the principal office or place of worship of said corporation is or is intended to be situated, and shall be filed and recorded in the office of the clerk of said county. If there is not, or is not intended to be, any such office or place of worship, the certificate shall be filed and recorded in the office of the secretary of state. (As amended by chap. 336 of 1896, § 2.) § 4. Property of unincorporated society transferred by its incorporation.--All the temporalities and property of an unincorporated church, or of any unincorporated religious society, body, association or congregation, shall, on the incorporation thereof, become the temporalities and property of such corporation, whether such temporalities or property be given, granted or devised directly to such unincorporated church, society, body, association or congregation, or to any other person for the use or benefit thereof. § 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 such 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. 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 its 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. (As amended by chap. 336 of 1896, § 3; chap. 144 of 1897, § 1; chap. 621 of 1897, § 1.) § 6. Acquisition of property by religious corporations for branch institutions; establishment, maintenance and management thereof.-Any religious corporation may acquire property for associate houses, church buildings, chapels, mission-houses, school-houses for Sunday or parochial schools, or dispensaries of medicine for the poor, or property for the residence of its ministers, teachers or employes, or property for a home for the aged. The persons attending public worship in any such associate house, mission-house, church building, or chapel connected therewith shall not, by reason thereof have any rights as members of the parent corporation. The persons statedly worshipping in any such house, mission-house, church building or chapel may, with the consent of the trustees of such corporation, become separately incorporated as a church, and the parent corporation may, in pursuance of the provisions of law regulating the disposition of real property by religious corporations, rent or convey to the new corporation, with or without consideration, any such associate house, church building, chapel, mission-house, school-house or dispensary and the lot connected therewith, subject to such regulations as the trustees of the parent corporation may make. Any religious corporation shall have power to establish, maintain and manage by its trustees or other officers as a part of its religious purpose a home for the aged, and may take and hold by conveyance, donation, bequest or devise real and personal property for such purpose, and may purchase and may erect suitable buildings therefor. Any such corporation may take and hold in grant, donation, bequest or devise of real or personal property heretofore or hereafter made upon trust, apply the same, or the income thereof, under the direction of its trustees or other officers, for the purpose of establishing, maintaining and managing such a home, and for the erection, preservation, repair or extension of any building or buildings for such purpose. (As amended by chap. 525 of 1896.) § 7. Acquisition of property by religious corporations for cemetery purposes; management thereof.-A religious corporation may take and hold, by purchase, grant, gift or devise, real property for the purposes of a cemetery; or such lot or lots in any cemetery connected with it, as may be conveyed or devised to it, with or without provisions limiting interments therein to particular persons or classes of persons; and may take and hold any property granted, given, devised or bequeathed to it in trust to apply the same or the income or proceeds thereof, under the direction of the trustees of the corporation, for the improvement or embellishment of such cemetery or any lot therein, including the erection, repair, preservation or removal of tombs, monuments, gravestones, fences, railings or other erections, or the planting or cultivation of trees, shrubs, plants, or flowers in or around any such cemetery or cemetery lots. A religious corporation may erect upon any property held by it for cemetery purposes, a suitable building for religious services for the burial of the dead, or for the use of the keepers or other persons employed in connection therewith, and may sell and convey lots in such cemetery for burial purposes, subject to such conditions and restrictions as may be imposed by the instrument by which the same was acquired, or by the rules and regulations adopted by such corporation. Every such conveyance of a lot or plat for burial purposes, signed, sealed and acknowledged in the same manner as a deed to be recorded, may be recorded in like manner and with like effect as a deed of real property. § 8. Removal of human remains from one cemetery of a religious corporation to another cemetery owned by it.-A religious corporation, notwithstanding the restrictions contained. in any conveyance or devise to it, may remove the human remains buried in a cemetery owned by it, to another cemetery owned by it, if the trustees thereof so determine, and if either three-fourths of the members of such corporation, qualified to vote at its corporate meetings, sign and acknowledge and cause to be recorded in the office of the clerk of the county in which such cemetery or a part thereof is situated, a written consent thereto, or if three-fourths of the members of such corporation qualified to vote, and present and voting, at a corporate meeting of such corporation, specially called for that purpose, shall approve thereof. But if such corporation be a church, previous notice of the object of such meeting shall be published for at least four successive weeks in a newspaper of the town, village or city in which the cemetery from which the removal is proposed, is situated, or if no newspaper is published therein, then in a newspaper designated by the county judge of such county. Such removal shall be made in an appropriate manner and in accordance with such directions as to the manner thereof as may be given by the board |