New York Consolidated Laws, Religious Corporations Law - RCO § 225-c. Certificate of incorporation

1. The presiding officer of such a meeting and at least two other persons present and voting thereat shall be appointed by such meeting to execute and acknowledge, before any person authorized to take acknowledgment of deeds, a certificate of incorporation whereby they shall agree to be governed by the discipline, rules and usages of the Free Methodist Church of North America.  To such certificate of incorporation there shall be attached a certificate signed by the district superintendent of the district in which said church is to be located, stating that the said church is incorporated by and with the consent of said district superintendent.

2. This certificate of incorporation shall contain the following items:  The name of said church;  the township, village or city, and the county in which said church shall be located;  an agreement to worship and labor together according to the discipline, rules and usages of the Free Methodist Church of North America;  the statement that there were six or more qualified voters present at the meeting where they were elected and this act of incorporation was authorized;  the names and respective periods of office of the trustees elected;  the place and date of said meeting for incorporation;  and the signatures and residences of those authorized to execute and acknowledge this certificate of incorporation.

3. This certificate of incorporation shall be executed in duplicate.  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.  On filing such certificate the members either in full connection or on probation of such church qualified to vote at such meeting and who shall thereafter, from time to time, be qualified voters at the corporate meetings thereof shall be a corporation by the name stated in such certificate, and the persons therein stated to be elected trustees of such church shall be the trustees thereof, for the terms for which they were respectively elected, and until their successors are elected.