2013 New York Consolidated Laws
RCO - Religious Corporations
Article 2 - (3 - 27) GENERAL PROVISIONS
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.