N.Y. Religious Corporations Law Section 3
Filing and recording certificates of incorporation of religious corporations

The certificate of incorporation of a religious corporation shall be acknowledged or proved before an officer authorized to take the acknowledgment or proof of deeds or conveyances of real estate, to be recorded in the county in which the principal office or place of worship of said corporation is or is intended to be situated, and shall be filed and recorded in the office of the clerk of said county. If there is not, or is not intended to be, any such office or place of worship, the certificate shall be filed and recorded in the office of the secretary of state. Where a religious corporation removes to another county within the state a duplicate copy of its certificate of incorporation together with a statement of such removal duly signed and acknowledged by the directors and officers of said corporation may be filed in the office of the clerk of said county to which it has removed. The recording of any certificate of a religious corporation organized under provisions of “An act to provide for the incorporation of religious societies,” passed April fifth, eighteen hundred and thirteen, and of the acts amending the same, in the office of a clerk of a county prior to the passage of chapter thirty-five of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, instead of in the office of the register of such county, shall be regarded and construed and such recording is hereby declared to be of the same validity, force and effect as would have been the recording of such certificate in the proper office. And every act, deed, matter and thing done or performed by every such religious society or corporation since the recording of its certificate in the office of said county clerk is hereby ratified, confirmed and declared to be as valid in all respects as if the said certificate had been properly and appropriately recorded in the office of the register of the county in which said religious society or corporation was organized; but this section shall not affect any suit or proceeding already commenced arising out of such original mistake.

Source: Section 3 — Filing and recording certificates of incorporation of religious corporations, https://www.­nysenate.­gov/legislation/laws/RCO/3 (updated Sep. 22, 2014; accessed Apr. 20, 2024).

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Filing and recording certificates of incorporation of religious corporations 4
Property of unincorporated society transferred by its incorporation 4‑A
Age qualifications of voters 5
General powers and duties of trustees of religious corporations 5‑A
Investment of funds 5‑B
Any investment of the funds of any religious corporation heretofore made by the trustees thereof shall not be deemed to have been restric... 6
Acquisition of property by religious corporations for branch institutions 7
Acquisition of property by religious corporations for cemetery purposes 7‑A
Deeds for cemetery purposes 8
Lot owners’ rights 8‑A
Reacquisition of a lot, plot or part thereof by a cemetery 9
Removal of human remains from one cemetery of a religious corporation to another cemetery owned by it 10
Acquisition of property by two or more religious corporations for a common parsonage 11
Correction and confirmation of conveyances to religious corporations 12
Sale, mortgage and lease of real property of religious corporations 13
Consolidation or merger of incorporated churches 14
Judicial investigation of amount of property of religious corporations 15
Corporations with governing authority over, or advisory relations with, churches or synods, or both 15‑A
Consolidation of incorporated presbyteries 15‑B
Consolidation or merger of incorporated Presbyterian and Lutheran synods 16
Property of extinct churches 17
Property of extinct Free Baptist churches 17‑A
Property of extinct Seventh Day Baptist churches and Seventh Day Baptist religious societies 17‑B
Property of extinct Presbyterian churches in connection with the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U 17‑C
Property of Lutheran congregations 18
Dissolution of religious corporations 19
Corporations for organizing and maintaining mission churches and Sunday schools 20
Corporations for acquiring parsonages for district superintendents and camp-meeting grounds 21
Corporations for acquiring camp-meeting grounds for the Reformed Methodist denomination 21‑A
Corporations for acquiring lands for parsonage or camp-meeting purposes for the Free Methodist denomination 22
Establishing and maintaining a home for aged poor 23
Powers of churches created by special laws 24
Government of churches incorporated prior to January first, eighteen hundred and twenty-eight 25
Pastoral relation 26
Worship 27
Reservation as to Baptist churches, churches of the United Church of Christ and Congregational Christian churches 28
Electronic meetings
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Accessed:
Apr. 20, 2024

Last modified:
Sep. 22, 2014

§ 3’s source at nysenate​.gov

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