§ 116. Evangelical Lutheran church, changing system of electing
trustees. If the trustees of an incorporated Evangelical Lutheran church
shall at any time be elective in pursuance of article ten of this
chapter, the church may, at an annual corporate meeting, if notice
thereof be given with the notice of such meeting determine that the
minister or ministers and elders and deacons thereof shall thereafter
constitute the trustees thereof, and thereon the trustees of such church
shall sign, acknowledge and cause to be filed and recorded, a
certificate stating the fact of such determination, and the name of the
minister or ministers, if any, and of the elders and deacons of such
church; and thereon the terms of office of such elective trustees shall
cease, and the minister or ministers and the elders and deacons of such
church, and their successors in office shall, by virtue of their
respective offices, be the trustees of such church. If, at any time, the
officers of an incorporated Evangelical Lutheran church which officers
by virtue of their offices constitute the trustees thereof shall
determine to submit to a meeting of such church corporation, the
question whether the trustees of such church shall be thereafter
elective in pursuance of article ten of this chapter, they shall cause a
corporate meeting of such church to be called and held in the manner
provided in sections one hundred and ninety-four and one hundred and
ninety-five of this chapter, and such corporate meeting shall determine
whether the trustees of such church shall thereafter be elective in
pursuance of article ten of this chapter, and also whether the number of
such trustees shall be three, six or nine, and the date of the annual
corporate meeting of the church. If such meeting shall determine that
such trustees shall thereafter be elective, the presiding officer
thereof and at least two other persons present and voting thereat, shall
sign, acknowledge and cause to be filed and recorded in the office of
the clerk of the county in which the certificate of incorporation of
such church is filed, a certificate of such determination of such
meeting; and thereafter the trustees of such church shall be elective in
pursuance of article ten of this chapter. At the next annual corporate
meeting after the filing of such certificate, one-third of the number of
trustees so determined on shall be elected to hold office for one year,
one-third for two years, and one-third for three years, and the officers
of such church who by virtue of their offices have been trustees of such
church, shall then cease to be such trustees, and thereafter article ten
of this chapter shall apply to such church. At each subsequent annual
corporate meeting of such church, one-third of the number of trustees so
determined on shall be elected to hold office for three years.