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Statutes » New York » RCO Law » Article 3

N.Y. RCO Law § 41

This is the official text of N.Y. RCO Law § 41, part of New York’s RCO Law — part of the compiled statutory law of New York, published by the state as "RCO Law." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Certificate of incorporation

Official statutory text

§ 41. Certificate of incorporation. If such meeting shall decide in\nfavor of incorporation and comply with the next preceding section, the\npresiding officer of such meeting and at least two other persons present\nand voting thereat, shall execute and acknowledge a certificate of\nincorporation setting forth:\n 1. The fact of the calling and holding of such meeting;\n 2. The name of the corporation as decided upon thereat;\n 3. The county, and the town, city or village, in which its principal\nplace of worship is, or is intended to be located;\n 4. The day, either on Sunday or a secular day, upon which the annual\nelection shall be held;\n 5. The number of vestrymen decided upon at such meeting;\n 6. The names of the vestrymen elected at such meeting and the term of\noffice of each;\n 7. The names of the churchwardens elected at such meeting and the term\nof office of each.\n Such certificate, when accompanied by a certificate of the bishop of\nthe diocese within which the principal place of worship of the proposed\ncorporation is, or is intended to be located, to the effect that he\nconsents to the incorporation of such church, shall be filed in the\noffice of the clerk of the county specified in the certificate of\nincorporation; but in case the see be vacant, or the bishop be absent or\nunable to act, the consent of the standing committee, with their\ncertificate of the vacancy of the see or of the absence or disability of\nthe bishop, shall suffice.\n On filing such certificate in the office of the clerk of the county so\nspecified therein the churchwardens and vestrymen so elected and their\nsuccessors in office, together with the rector, when there is one, shall\nform a vestry and shall be the trustees of such church or congregation;\nand they and their successors shall thereupon, by virtue of this\nchapter, be a body corporate by the name or title expressed in such\ncertificate, and shall have power, from time to time to adopt by-laws\nfor its government. Such corporation shall be an incorporated church,\nand may be termed also an incorporated parish.\n

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.