2023 New York Laws › RCO - Religious Corporations › Article 2 - General Provisions › 13 - Consolidation or Merger of Incorporated Churches.

§  13.  Consolidation  or merger of incorporated churches. Two or more
  incorporated  churches  may  enter  into  an  agreement,   under   their
  respective  corporate  seals,  for  the  consolidation or merger of such
  corporations, setting forth the name of the proposed new corporation  or
  surviving  corporation,  the  denomination,  if  any,  to which it is to
  belong, and if the churches of such  denomination  have  more  than  one
  method  of  choosing trustees, by which of such methods the trustees are
  to be chosen, the number of such trustees, the names of the  persons  to
  be  the first trustees of the new corporation, and the date of its first
  annual corporate meeting. Such an  agreement  shall  not  be  valid  for
  United  Methodist  churches  unless  proposed  by a majority vote of the
  charge conference of each church and approved by the  superintendent  or
  superintendents  of the district or districts in which the consolidating
  churches are located, and by the majority of the members of each of such
  churches, over the age of twenty-one years,  present  and  voting  at  a
  meeting thereof held in the usual place of public worship and called for
  the purpose of considering such agreement by announcement made at public
  service  in  such  churches  on two Sundays, the first not less than ten
  days next preceding the date of such meeting. Such agreement  shall  not
  be valid unless approved in the case of Protestant Episcopal churches by
  the  bishop and standing committee of the diocese in which such churches
  are situated and in the case of churches of other denominations  by  the
  governing  body  of  the  denomination,  if  any,  to  which each church
  belongs, having jurisdiction over such church.  Each  corporation  shall
  thereupon  make  a  separate  petition to the supreme court for an order
  consolidating  or  merging   the   corporations,   setting   forth   the
  denomination,  if  any, to which the church belongs, that the consent of
  the governing body to the consolidation  or  merger,  if  any,  of  that
  denomination having jurisdiction over such church has been obtained, the
  agreement  therefor, and a statement of all the property and liabilities
  and the amount and sources of the  annual  income  of  such  petitioning
  corporation.  In  its discretion the court may direct that notice of the
  hearing of such petition be given to the parties interested  therein  in
  such manner and for such time as it may prescribe. After hearing all the
  parties interested, present and desiring to be heard, the court may make
  an  order  for  the  consolidation  or merger of the corporations on the
  terms of such agreement and such other terms and conditions  as  it  may
  prescribe,  specifying the name of such new or surviving corporation and
  the trustees thereof, and the method by which their successors shall  be
  chosen  and the date of its first or next annual corporate meeting. When
  such order is made and  duly  entered,  the  persons  constituting  such
  consolidated  or  merged corporations shall be or become an incorporated
  church by, and said petitioning churches shall  become  consolidated  or
  merged under, the name designated in the order, and the trustees therein
  named  shall  be  the  trustees thereof, and the future trustees thereof
  shall be chosen by the method therein designated, and  all  the  estate,
  rights,  powers  and  property  of whatsoever nature belonging to either
  corporation  shall  without  further  act  or  deed  be  vested  in  and
  transferred  to  the new or surviving corporation as effectually as they
  were vested in or belonging to the former corporations; and the said new
  or  surviving  corporation  shall  be  liable  for  all  the  debts  and
  liabilities  of  the  former  corporations  in  the  same  manner and as
  effectually as if said debts  or  liabilities  had  been  contracted  or
  incurred  by  the new or surviving corporation. A certified copy of such
  order shall be recorded  in  the  book  for  recording  certificates  of
  incorporation  in each county clerk's office in which the certificate of
  incorporation of each consolidating or merging church was  recorded;  or
  if  no  such  certificate was so recorded, then in the clerk's office of

  the county in which the principal place of worship or  principal  office
  of the new or surviving corporation is, or is intended to be, situated.