[No. 27.] AN ACT to provide for the incorporation of Wesleyan Methodist churches. The People of the State of Michigan enact: SECTION 1. It shall be lawful for any number of members Number may of the Wesleyan Methodist connection (or church), of full incorporate. age, not less than five, to organize and procure the incorporation of a Wesleyan Methodist church. of association. SEC. 2. The persons desiring to organize such church shall To execute articles execute and acknowledge, before any person authorized to take acknowledgment of deeds, articles of association in writing, whereby they shall agree to organize a church, which shall be governed by the discipline, rules and usages of the Wesleyan Methodist connection (or church). contain. SEC. 3. Said articles of association shall contain the fol- What articles to lowing items: First, the name of said church; second, the township, village or city, and the county in which said church shall be located; third, the time for which said corporation shall be created; fourth, an agreement to worship and labor together according to the discipline, rules and usages of the Wesleyan Methodist connection (or church). Said articles may be in the following form: We, the undersigned, desiring to become incorporated under Form of. the provisions of act number .. of the public acts of nineteen hundred five, entitled "An act to provide for the incorporation of Wesleyan Methodist churches," do hereby make, execute and adopt the following articles of association, to wit: First, The name assumed by this corporation, and by which it shall be known in law, is "The Wesleyan Methodist Church;" of Second, The location of said church shall be in the ..... of Michigan; Third, The time for which said corporation shall be created shall not exceed thirty years from the date of its organization; Fourth, The members of said church shall worship and labor together according to the discipline, rules and usages of the Wesleyan Methodist connection (or church) of America, as from time to time authorized and declared by the general conference of said connection and the annual conference within whose bounds said corporation is situated. In witness whereof, we, the parties hereby associating, for the purpose of giving legal effect to these articles, hereunto sign our names and places of residence. of ... Done at the... county of 19...., before me, a county, personally appeared in and for said known to me to be the persons named in, and who executed the foregoing instrument, and severally acknowledged that they executed the same freely and for the intents and purposes therein mentioned. How executed. Where filed. To be body corporate. Matters of church government, to whom subject. Board of trustees, to manage secular affairs. Number of. Term of office. Vacancies. May elect trustees at any time. SEC. 4. Said articles of association shall be executed in duplicate, and acknowledged before some officer authorized by law to take acknowledgment of deeds. One of such duplicate copies shall be retained by such corporation and one copy shall be recorded in the office of the county clerk of the county where such corporation is formed. When said articles of association shall have been recorded or left for record in the office of said county clerk, the said persons so signing the said articles of association, and their associates and fellow members of said church, and all who may thereafter become members of said church, according to the discipline, rules and usages of the Wesleyan Methodist connection (or church), shall thereby become, and thenceforth be, a body politic or corporation, by the name expressed in said articles of association, with all the powers, rights and priv ileges appertaining to religious corporations by the laws of this State. SEC. 5. Said church, when so organized, shall be subject in all matters of church government and ecclesiastical polity to the discipline, usages and ministerial appointments of the Wesleyan Methodist connection (or church) of America, as from time to time authorized and declared by the general conference of said connection and the annual conference within whose bounds such corporation may be situated. SEC. 6. The secular affairs of such church shall be managed by a board of trustees, consisting of not less than three nor more than nine members, to be elected by ballot by said corporation from the membership of the church. The said trustees shall hold office for such term as the said church shall decide upon, and until their successors are elected, unless they cease to be members of said church, in which case they shall also cease to be trustees. Vacancies in said board may be filled at any time for the balance of the term, by an election as in other cases. SEC. 7. If it shall happen that any church organized under the provisions of this act shall, from any cause, be found at any time without trustees, such church shall not for that cause lose its corporate existence, but such church dissolution by successor. may at any time proceed to elect trustees, as provided in this act: Provided, That whenever any corporation organized Proviso, as to under the provisions of this act shall be dissolved by the loss of members. death of all its members, or by the loss of so many of them that it is thereby rendered unable to do any corporate act or to restore itself by proceeding to elect trustees, as provided in this act, the annual conference, within whose bounds such corporation may be situated, shall be held and deemed to be who to be the legal successor of such corporation and shall succeed to, and be vested with, all property rights which were in such corporation at the time it was dissolved; and said annual How property conference may, by such officer or committee as said annual conference may designate for that purpose, apply to the circuit court in chancery, for the county in which such property may be, for license to sell the same; and such license may License to sell, be granted by said court after such notice of said application as the court may direct; and thereupon said property may be sold, and the proceeds of such sale applied or used as said annual conference may direct. disposed of. how granted. by-laws. to prescribe. SEC. 8. The persons forming such corporation may adopt May adopt by-laws, and execute and acknowledge them in the same manner as the articles of association above provided for, and such by-laws shall be recorded in the office of the county clerk Where recorded. of the county in which the corporation is located. Such What by-laws by-laws shall prescribe the qualifications of members; the manner in which persons are to become members, or cease to be such; the officers of such corporation; their official titles; their term of office; the manner of their election and removal from office; their official duties; the time and manner of calling and holding meetings; the manner and condition under which personal property and real estate may be acquired, held and disposed of, and such other by-laws as may be deemed necessary for the management of the affairs of such corporation. Such by-laws shall also prescribe the manner in which they may be altered, amended or repealed. be sued; hold and etc. SEC. 9. Said corporation may have a seal and alter the Corporation may same at pleasure; it may, in its corporate name, sue and be have seal; sue and sued in all courts and places; it shall have power to acquire, convey property, hold, sell and convey property, both real and personal, in accordance with this act, and it may recover and hold the debts, demands, rights, privileges, and all property, whether real or personal, of whatever sort it may be, belonging or appertaining to said church, in whatever manner the same may have been acquired, and in whose hands soever the same may be held, the same as if the right and title had originally been invested in said corporation. It may sell (but Restrictions as not mortgage) or otherwise dispose of its personal property, to property. And it may, under restrictions hereinafter provided, sell, mortgage, or otherwise dispose of or encumber its real es tate, but not for current expenses. It may hold so much Property held land as may be needful for the proper purposes of said church in trust. and its parsonage. It may also hold for a period not to Shall permit ministers to ister sacrament. exceed ten years, real estate, which may be conveyed or devised to it or to said trustees to be sold and the proceeds to be used in any way for the benefit of said church, as directed in the conveyance or will. Said corporation shall preach and admin- at all times permit such ministers belonging to the Wesleyan Methodist church, as shall from time to time be duly authorized by the general conference of said connection (or church) or by the annual conference, within whose bounds the said corporation may be, to preach and expound God's Holy Word therein; and shall permit pastors duly appointed to execute the discipline of the Wesleyan Methodist connection, and to administer the sacraments therein. May alter and amend articles. SEC. 10. It shall be lawful for any church organized under the provisions of this act, by a two-thirds vote of the members of the same, who are present and voting, to alter and amend its articles of association, or its by-laws, in any manner not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, or the discipline of the Wesleyan Methodist connection; and such When operative. alteration or amendment shall become operative when twothirds of the voting members present shall authorize the board of trustees to execute and acknowledge the amended article or articles in the same manner as stated for the original articles, and the same has or have been recorded, or left for record, in the office of the county clerk as provided in section four of this act. Who may authorize sale or mortgage of real estate. Proceeds, how used. Where title vested after abandonment or dissolution. Corporations may come under the act. SEC. 11. When it shall become necessary for the payment of debts, or with a view to re-investment, to make a sale or mortgage of any real estate belonging to said church, the members of the church, by a two-thirds majority of the same, who are present and voting, may authorize a sale or mortgage of said real estate by the trustees of said church, who, when so authorized, may sell and convey or mortgage said property, and with the proceeds of such sale or mortgage pay the debts of such corporation, or re-invest the said proceeds by the purchase or improvement of other property for the same uses and deeded to the corporation in the same manner as provided in section nine of this act, as said trustees may be directed by the church. In all cases where property belonging to any church incorporated under the provisions of this act has been abandoned and is no longer used for the purpose for which said property was acquired, or said corporation has dissolved, or has ceased to exist, the title to said property belonging to said corporation, together with all property rights which were in such corporation at the time it was dissolved, shall pass to the annual conference within the bounds of which said property is located, and said annual conference may proceed as in section seven of this act. SEC. 12. Any Wesleyan Methodist church heretofore inprovisions of this corporated, or the trustees of which have heretofore exercised the powers of a body corporate, may by a two-thirds vote of the members of the society, present and voting, place itself under the provisions of this act, the same as if originally in corporated under it, by two-thirds of the members present and voting executing articles of association as provided in section three of this act, and recording the same, as provided in section four of this act. SEC. 13. In all proceedings or suits that may arise, or be Other acts not to affect provisions brought in any of the courts of this State, touching, or in of this act. any way concerning churches that may be incorporated under this act, or which by vote of the members of the society thereof may have placed themselves under its provisions, all other acts or parts of acts inconsistent herewith shall be interpreted and construed in such manner as to give full force and effect to all the provisions of this act, and to all the rights and privileges granted by this act to churches incorporated or placed thereunder. evidence of SEC. 14. It is further provided that the execution by the Prima facie acting trustees of said corporation, in proper form, of any appointment deed, mortgage, note, bond, or other obligation or contract of of trustees. said corporation, shall be prima facie evidence of the proper appointment of said trustees, and that the necessary steps have been taken to give them full authority to make such transaction. istence, how how attested. SEC. 15. Any corporation organized under the provisions Corporate exof this act, whose corporate existence is about to expire by may extend. limitation, may extend its corporate existence from time to time for a term not exceeding thirty years, by causing to be recorded in the office of the clerk of the county where such corporation is located, a copy of a resolution expressing a desire to so extend its corporate existence, which resolution shall be adopted by such corporation at a meeting called for the purpose by the pastor of the church. When such reso- Resolution. lution is left for record with the clerk of the county, within which said corporation is located, it shall be duly attested by the pastor of the church. Upon the leaving of such resolu tion for record, as above specified, with the attestation as above specified, the corporate existence of such body shall be extended in accordance with the terms of such resolution for a term not exceeding thirty years from the date of the expiration of its former term, and all rights of property and of contract shall remain unimpaired and the corporate identity of such body shall remain unchanged. This act is ordered to take immediate effect. |