New York Consolidated Laws, Religious Corporations Law - RCO § 336. Definitions

1. The “Byelorussian Autocephalic Orthodox Church in America,” as that term is used anywhere in this article, refers to the churches, cathedrals, chapels, congregations, societies, parishes, committees and other religious organizations of the Eastern Orthodox Church which are subject to ecclesiastical and administrative jurisdiction and authority of the archbishop, or bishop, who is the ecclesiastical administrator of the American diocese of the Byelorussian Autocephalic Orthodox Church created pursuant to resolutions adopted at a diocesan convention (sobor) of said diocese held at Brooklyn, New York, on May twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth, nineteen hundred sixty and subject to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the metropolitan archbishop, or other primate, or the locum tenens acting in his place and the council of bishops of the Byelorussian Autocephalic Orthodox Church.

2. Every church, parish, congregation, society, or committee incorporated or reincorporated, pursuant to this article, shall in all respects conform to, maintain, and follow the faith, doctrine, ritual, communion, discipline, canon law, traditions and usages of the Eastern Orthodox Church as such are determined by the governing ecclesiastical body of the Byelorussian Autocephalic Orthodox Church, and shall recognize and be and remain subject to the jurisdiction and authority of the duly appointed archbishop, bishop or other administrator of the American Diocese of the Byelorussian Autocephalic Orthodox Church, hereinafter called Byelorussian Autocephalic Orthodox Church in America, or his successor in office, and shall accept, secure or receive the sacramental, pastoral, or ministerial services of such clergy only as are so certified to be of lawful and canonical status or authority in the Byelorussian Autocephalic Orthodox Church in America, and retain or secure as pastors only such clergy as have, in addition, the permission of the said archbishop, bishop, or administrator of the Byelorussian Autocephalic Orthodox Church in America.