Sec. 3.

The trustees of every church, congregation or society hereinabove mentioned, and their successors may respectively have and use a common seal, and may renew and alter the same at their pleasure, and are hereby authorized and empowered to take into their possession and custody all the temporalities belonging to such church, congregation or society, whether the same consists of real or personal estate, and whether the same shall have been given, granted or devised directly to such church, congregation or society, or to any other person for their use; and also, by their corporate name or title, to sue and be sued in all courts of law or equity, and to recover, hold and enjoy all the debts, demands, rights and privileges, and all churches, meeting houses, parsonages and burying places, with the appurtenances, and all estates belonging to such church, congregation or society, in whatsoever manner the same may have been acquired, or in whose name soever the same may be held, as fully and amply as if the right or title thereto had originally been invested in the said trustees; and also to purchase and hold other real and personal estate, and to demise, lease and improve the same for the use of such church, congregation or society, or other pious uses, and also to repair and alter their churches or meeting houses, and to erect others, if necessary, and to erect dwelling houses for the use of their ministers, and other buildings for the use of such church, congregation or society; and such trustees shall also have power to make rules and orders for managing the temporal affairs of such church, congregation or society, and to dispose of all moneys belonging thereto, and to regulate and order the renting of the pews in their churches and meeting houses, and the perquisites for the breaking of the ground in the cemetery or church yards and in the said churches or meeting houses, for burying the dead and all other matters relating to the temporal concerns and revenues of such church, congregation or society; and to appoint a clerk and treasurer of their board, and a collector to collect and receive the said rents and revenues, and to regulate the fees to be allowed to such clerk, treasurer and collector, and them or either of them to remove at pleasure, and appoint others in their stead; and such clerk shall enter all rules and orders made by such trustees, and payments ordered by them, in a book to be provided by them for that purpose.

History: 1899, Act 82, Imd. Eff. May 25, 1899 ;-- CL 1915, 10956 ;-- CL 1929, 10968 ;-- CL 1948, 458.403