UNION CHURCH INCORPORATION ORDINANCE, 1911

UNION CHURCH INCORPORATION ORDINANCE, 1911

No. 57 of 1911.

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

[1st December, 1911.]

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

2. The trustees of the Union. Church in Hong Kong shall
be a body corporate (hereinafter called the said corporation) and
shall have the name ' The Trustees of the Union Church in
Hong Kong', and by that name shall have perpetual succes-
siont 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 any lands, buildings, messuages or tenements of what
nature or kind soever and wheresoever situate in this Colony,
and also to invest moneys on mortgage of any lands, buildings,
messuages or tenements in this Colony, or on the mortgages,
or debentures, stocks, funds, shares or securities of any cor-
poration or company carrying on business or having an office
in this Colony, and also to purchase and acquire all manner
of goods and chattels whatsoever ; and the said corporation is
hereby further empowered, by deed under its seal, to grant, sell,
convey, assign, surrender and yield up, mortgage, demise,
reassign, transfer or otherwise dispose of any lands, buildings,
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
montlisY or desiring to be discharged from the trust, or refusing
or becoming unfit to act therein or incapable of acting therein,
a sticcessor 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 accordance with the provisions of section





11, and the appointment 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 any 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 languages, 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 introducing or supporting Presbyterian ism,
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 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
secretary 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 appertaining thereto,
and all moneys belonging or due or owing to the Church, and
all other the property of the said Church, shall be the property
of the said corporation, and all monuments, tablets and
memorials shall be under the care and custody of the said
corporation.

8. A c ommittee of management (hereinafter called the com-
mittee), including a secretary and treasurer, shall be elected
annually at a meeting of the sedt-holders (being subscribers) of
the said Union Church, to be lield 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 wor-
ship 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
business or 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-
holders and subscribers of the said Church during at least the
six months preceding 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 seatwholders 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 shalt 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 the purposes of the said Church.

0. It shall be lawful for the committee to make regulations
relating to the following matters-

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

(2) the hold ing of meetings of the committee and the conduct
of the business 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 an auditor, and the
filling up of casual vacancies among the committee;

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

(6) the keeping of registers of communicants, seat-holders
and subscribers, and of baptisms, marriages and burials;

(7) 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, 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, tablets or
other memorials in the said Church or in the precincts thereof,
and the fees to he 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, com-
pletion, 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
ihe other purposes of these presents as the said committee shall
direct: Provided nevertheless that moneys contributed or sub-
scribed 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 lawful for the said corporation to order the
removal of any monuffient, tablet or other meniorial, in the said
Church or in the precincts thereof which has become ruinous,
dilapidated or unsightly, if the owner thereof cannot be found
or refuses to properly repair and maintain it 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 ofthe said Church.

18. In the event of the said corporation failing to use,
occupy and enjoy the present Union Church and the buildings
connected therewith, or any other premises Which. may be sub-
stituted therefor, for the purposes mentioned in section 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, goods and chattels then
belonging to the said corporation, in trust for the London
Missionary Society incorporated under the London, Missionary
Society Incorporation Ordinance, 1891, absolutely.

19. Nothing in this Ordinance shall affect or be deemed to
affect the rights of His Majesty the King.

No. 58 of 1911, repealed by NO. 39 of 1932.

No. 59 of 1911, incorporated in No. 10 of 1911.

No. 60 of 1911, incorporated in No. 1 of 1903,
repealed by No. 7 Of 1935.

No. 61 of 1911, incorporated in No. 19 of 1911.
repealed by No. 18 of 1923.

No. 62 and 63 of 1911, incorporated generally.

No. 64 of 1911, incorpoiated in No. 1 of 1872,

* As to effect of repeal, see No. 39 of 1932 [Companies], s. 353.
[Originally No. 57 of 1911.] Short title. Incorporation of trustees. Appointment of new trustees. Union Church to be used as church. Seal. Vesting of movable property and monuments in corporation. Committee of management. Appointment of ministers. Direction of religious services. Meetings of seatholders. 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. [1.7.33.]

[Originally No. 57 of 1911.] Short title. Incorporation of trustees. Appointment of new trustees. Union Church to be used as church. Seal. Vesting of movable property and monuments in corporation. Committee of management. Appointment of ministers. Direction of religious services. Meetings of seatholders. 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. [1.7.33.]

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