Provides a means of incorporation for affiliated churches of the Elim Fellowship under the religious corporation law

Title of bill

An act to amend the religious corporations law, in relation to providing a means of incorporation for churches affiliated with the Elim Fellowship

Purpose

To provide a means of incorporation for churches affiliated with the Elim Fellowship.

Justification

Elim Fellowship, Inc., an association of churches, ministers and missionaries, requests the addition of a new Article 22 to the Religious Corporations Law (RCL) to facilitate the incorporation of new churches and the rein corporation of existing churches that are in relationship to it.

Elim Fellowship was established in 1933 as an informal fellowship of churches, ministers and missionary endeavors. Its present headquarters are in Lima, New York, where it supports 850 credential holders and 190 churches. Ninety of these churches are located in New York State. Of the 90 New York churches, 48 are Affiliated Churches, 3 are new church plants and 39 are independent churches whose Senior Pastors are credentialed through Elim Fellowship. All 90 churches are in some degree of relationship to Elim Fellowship.

Elim Fellowship itself is incorporated under Section 15 of the RCL. It does not use the terminology "denomination" to describe itself, but does offer accountability structures and services to its churches that are similar to those offered by denominations.

Because Elim Fellowship has no chapter of its own in the RCL, its New York churches have been incorporated under various articles of that law, primarily Articles 8-10. These particular articles do not provide sufficient flexibility in church governance to accommodate Elim Fellowship's churches. Article 9 (derived from an 1854 law) requires 7 trustees, only 2 of which can be ministers, and is unsuitable for a new church plant. Articles 8 and 10 (derived from an 1895 law) only recognize congregational forms of church government. Thus, they are not suitable for a new church plant or for an eldership or pastor led model.

Other articles of the Religious Corporations Law cannot be used for incorporation because they are for the particular denomination that they reference. The Not-For-Profit Laws (NPL) of New York cannot be used for incorporation because it is not available for the incorporation of churches.

It is important that the law provide a vehicle for incorporating a church that is consistent with the form of governance the church tradition embraces. In a recent court decision (St. Matthew Church of Christ Disciples of Christ, Inc. V. Croech, 196 Misc.2d,§43, 2003), the court found that a church had failed to properly elect trustees as required by its certificate of incorporation and appointed a receiver to oversee new elections.

The church's method of choosing trustees was not consistent with the articles of incorporation under which it had incorporated. Elim Fellowship does not want its churches to be subject to such court challenges because there is no suitable chapter in the RCL for incorporating a church of its faith persuasion and policy.

Consequently, Elim Fellowship, Inc. Desires to add an article to the Religious Corporations Law that is specifically drafted to accommodate its churches. Article 20-A draws from three primary sources: (1) election of Trustees under the NPL, (2) provision for incorporation and reincorporation found in Article 20 of the RCL (the Assemblies of God article) adopted in 1984, and (3) the policy of Elim Fellowship, Inc.

Legislative history

A8403 (2007-2008)

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

Immediately.