UNION CHURCH INCORPORATION ORDINANCE, 1911

UNION CHURCH INCORPORATION ORDINANCE, 1911

No. 57 of 1911.

An Ordinance for the incorporated of the trustees of the
Union Church at Victoria.

[1st December, 1911.]

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Union Chunch
Incorporation Ordinance, 1911.

2. The trustees of the Union Church in Hongkong shall
be a body corporate (hereinafter called the said corporation)
and shall have the name The Trustees of the Union Church
in Hongkong, and by that name shall have perpetual
succession, and shall and may sue and be sued in all courts
in this Colony, and shall and may have and use a common
seal, and the said seal may break, change, alter, and make
anew as to the said corporation may seem fit; and the said
corporation shall have full power to acquire, accept leases
of, purchase, take, hold, and enjoy and lands, buildings,
messuages, or tenements of what nature or kind soever and
wheresover situate in this Colony, and also to invest moneys
on mortgage of any lands, buildings, messuages, or tene-
ments in this Colony, or on the mortgages, or debentures,
stocks, funds, shares, or securities of any corporation or
company carrying on business or having an office in this
colony, and also to purchasee and acquire all manner of goods
and chattels whatsoever; and the said corporation is hereby
further empowered by deed under its seal, to grant, seel,
convey, assign, surrender, and yield up, mortgage, demise,
re-assign, transfer, or otherwise dispose of any lands, build-
ings, messuages, and tenements, mortgages, debentures,
stocks, funds, and securities, goods and chattels, vested in
the said corporation on such terms as to the said corporation
may seem fit.

[s. 3, rep. No. 16 of 1912.]

4. In the event of any of the trustees dying or remaining
out of the Colony continuously for more than twenty-four
months, or desiring to be discharged from the trust, or
refusing or becoming unfit to act therein or incapable of
acting therein, a successor to such trustee shall be appointed
at a meeting of the seat-holders (being subscribers) of the
said Church to be convened and held in accordinance with the
provisions of section 11, and shall be notified by the remaining
trustees or trustee to the Colonial Secretary in writing, and
such notice shall be published in the Gazette.

5. The said corporation shall permit the said Union
Church and the buildings connected therewith now standing
upon Inland Lots Nos. 1219, 1803 and 1567, and other
premises which may be substituted therefor, to be used,
occupied and enjoyed as a church for the public worship of
God and for preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
as well in Chinese as in English and other European lan-
guages according to the principles and usages of Protestant
Evangelical Christians, and for the sole object of spreading
the knowledge of Christ, as shall seem most agreeable to the
word of God, and not for the purpose of introdcing or
supporting Presbyterianism, independency, Episcopacy, or
any other form of church order and government, about which
there may be difference of opinion, but under such form of




church government as the seat-holders (being subscribers) of
the Union Church shall direct, and also, subject to such
direction, for the instruction of children and adults, and for
the promoting of religious and philanthropic purposes and
for the providing of a residence for the minister or ministers.

6. All deeds, documents and other instruments requiring
the seal of the said corporation shall be sealed in the
presence of two or more of the trustees, and shall also be
signed by the sceretary and by two or more of the trustees
so present, and such signing shall be and be taken as
sufficient evidence of the due sealing thereof.

7. All books, deeds, papers, and other documents hitherto
kept at the union Church or belonging or appeartaining
thereto, and all moneys belonging of due or owing to the
Church, and all other the property of the said Church, shall
be the propety of the said corporation, and all monuments,
tablets and memorials shall be under the care and custody
of the said corporation.





8. A committee of management ( hereinafter called the
committee) including a secretary and treasurer, shall be
elected annually at a meeting of the seat-holders (being sub-
scribers) of the said Union Church, to be held as herein
provided, and those elected shall appoint one of their
number to be chairman, and shall have power to add to
their number:


9. The seat-holders being subscribers may appoint one
or more minister or ministers to perform and carry on divine
worship and the services usual in a Protestant Evangelical
Christian Church.

10. All matters connected with the religious services of
the said Church shall be under the immediate direction of
the minister or senior minister subject, nevertheless, to the
control of the committee.

11. All meetings shall be convened by the minister or
senior minister or by the committee or by the said corporation
or by one-fifth in number of the seat-holders (being
subscribers) of the said Church entitled to vote at such
meeting, by notice announcing the place, day and hour of


the meeting and the businessor matter to be transacted or
considered, and such notice shall be given at each service

held on the premises on the two Lord's days immediately
preceding such meeting at the usual time, for giving notices
during divine service.

The meeting shall be, held not, earlier than the Wednesday
next following the second of such two Lord's days.

The only persons who shall be entitled to attend and vote
at such meeting shall be those who, whether male or female.
have attained the age of twenty-one years, and have been
seat-bolders and subscribers of the said Church during at
least the six months preceeding the meeting, and have held
one or more sittings in the said Church and subscribed and
paid for or in respect, of the same to the maintenance of
divine worship in the said Church.

Each such seat-holder shall be entitled to one vote, and
the vote of two-thirds in number of the said seat-holders so
attending and voting shall be deemed to be the vote of, and
shall bind all the seat-holders (being subscribers) of the said
Church.

The chairman of such meeting shall be the person appointed
by a majority of the persons present at such meeting and
entitled to vote.

No votes shall be given by proxy, but votes may be given
by ballot or otherwise at any such meeting as such meeting
shall direct.

In case of equality of votes, the chairman shall have the
casting vote, but Shall not otherwise vote on any question
before the meeting.

12. The temporal Affairs of the said Church shall be
managed, directed, and governed by the committee: Provided,
however, that the members of the committee shall not be
deemed personally liable for any payments of money in excess
of that provided or available for tbe purposes of the said
Church.

13. It shall be, lawfull for the committee to make regulations
relating to the following matters:---

(1) the qualification, election, and tenure of office of the
members of the committee;





(2) the holding of meetings of the committee and the
conduct of the bussiness thereat;

(3) the temporary appointment of a minister or assistant
minister during the absence from any cause of the incumbent
of the post ;

(4) the election and tenure of office of in auditor, and the
filling up of casual vacancies among the committee ;

(5) the appointment, tenure of office, salary, aud duties of
any organist, verger, or other officer or servant as the com-
mittee may think necessary or expedient;

(6) the keeping of registers of communicants, seat-holders,

and subscribers, and of baptisms, marriages, and burials;

(7) the the holding of meetings of the seat-holders and sub-
scribers, the right of voting and the taking and recording of
the votes at such meetings (where the same is not specially
provided for by this Ordinance), and the conduct of business
specially thereat ;

(8) the appropriation, allotment, allotment, arrangement, and use of
the sittings in the said Church;

(9) the rents and subscriptions, if any, to be paid for the
sittings in the said Church, and the mode of collection thereof,
the fees to be taken for baptisms, marriages and burials, or
other Services, and the collection and disposition of money,
offerings, offertories, and donations;

(10) the keeping of accounts of moneys received and
expended by the committee;


(11) the erection and maintenance of monuments, tabets,
or other memorials in the said Church, or in the precincts
thereof, and the fees to be taken therefor ; and

(12) all other matters relating to the affairs of the said
Church or of the committee otherwise than where specially
provided for by this Ordinance.

14. All regulations made by the committee shall be valid
unless they have been disapproved at an annual or special
meeting of the seat-holders and subscribers.





15. The said corporation shall permit the person appointed
for that purpose by the committee to receive all moneys and
subscriptions given or paid for the use of pews and sittings

in the said Church or otherwise contributed or subscribed
for the purposes aforesaid, and also, the net rents arising
from any lease, of the premises or any part thereof and any
other money in the nature of income, and after payment
thereout of the expenses of repairing and insuring the
premises and the interest of any debt secured on the premises
or incurred in the erection, completion, repair, alteration,
enlargement, or improvement of the said premises, to pay
such sum for the support of the minister and the assistant
minister (if any) of the said Church as the committee shall
have determined, and to apply the remainder in payment of
the incidental and other expenses attending the maintenance
of divine worship, or to invest the same, and for the order
purposes of these presents as the said committee shall direct:
Provided nevertheless, that moneys contributed or subscribed
for any specified purpose shall be applied to such purpose.

16. The said corporation shall have power to sue for all
rents, subscriptions, fees, and moneys due or owing to the
said Church.

17. It shall be lawfull for the said corporation to order the
removal of any monument, tablet, or other memorial in the
said Church or In the precincts thereof which has become
ruinous, dilapidated, or unsightly, if the owner thereof can-
not be found or refuses to properly repair and maintain if to
the satisfaction of the said corporation: Provided always
that three months notice of such intended removal shall be
given in writing to the owner If he can be found, and if he
cannot be found, a notice signifying such intended removal
shall be posted for three months upon the notice board of
the said Church.

18. In the event of the said corporation failing to use,
occupy, and enjoy the present Union Church and the build-
ings connected therewith, or any other premises which may
be substituted therefor, for the purposes mentioned in sec-
tion 5 for a period of more than two years at any one time,
then the said corporation shall hold the said premises with
the erections and buildings thereon, and all moneys, good's
and chattels then belonging to the said corporation, in trust

for the London Missionary Society incorporated under the
London Missionary, Society Incorporation Ordinance, 1891,

19. Nothing in this Ordinance shall affect or be deemed
to affect, the rights of His Majesty the King.
[Originally No. 57 of 1911. Law Rev. Ord., 1924.] Short title. Incorporation of trustees. Appointment of new trustees. Union Church to be used as a church. Seal. Vesting of movable property and monuments in corporation. Committee of managemnet. Appointment of ministers. Direction of religious services. Meetings of the seat-holders being subscribers. Votes. Management of temporal affairs. Powers of committee. Regulations to be valid until disapproved. Receipt of moneys, etc. Power to sue. Power to remove monuments, etc. Property to be held in trust for London Missionary Society in certain events. Ordinance No. 6 of 1891. Saving of rights of the Crown.

[Originally No. 57 of 1911. Law Rev. Ord., 1924.] Short title. Incorporation of trustees. Appointment of new trustees. Union Church to be used as a church. Seal. Vesting of movable property and monuments in corporation. Committee of managemnet. Appointment of ministers. Direction of religious services. Meetings of the seat-holders being subscribers. Votes. Management of temporal affairs. Powers of committee. Regulations to be valid until disapproved. Receipt of moneys, etc. Power to sue. Power to remove monuments, etc. Property to be held in trust for London Missionary Society in certain events. Ordinance No. 6 of 1891. Saving of rights of the Crown.

https://oelawhk.lib.hku.hk/items/show/1259

1923

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