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