§ 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.