§ 45. Changing date of annual election, number and terms of office of
vestrymen and terms of office of churchwardens in Protestant Episcopal
churches heretofore incorporated. If the vestry of a Protestant
Episcopal parish, heretofore incorporated, shall by resolution,
recommend that the date of the annual election be changed to another
day, either a Sunday or a secular day, or that the number of vestrymen
be changed to three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen, eighteen, twenty-one or
twenty-four, and that the terms of office of the churchwardens be
changed so that one warden shall be elected annually, notice of such
recommendation shall be included in the notice of the next annual
election of such parish, or in the notice of a special meeting to be
held not less than six months before the time fixed for holding the next
annual election thereafter, and be submitted to such annual or special
meeting. If such recommendation be ratified by such meeting, the
presiding officer thereof and at least two qualified voters present
thereat, shall execute and acknowledge a certificate setting forth such
resolution of the vestry; the fact that notice thereof had been given
with the notice of the annual election, or with the notice of the
special meeting, as the case may be; that such meeting had ratified the
same; the date determined upon for the annual election of the parish;
the number of vestrymen so decided on; and the fact that the meeting
determined to thereafter elect churchwardens, so that the term of one
warden shall expire annually. Such certificate shall be filed in the
office of the clerk of the county in which the original certificate of
incorporation is filed and recorded. If the meeting determine to change
the date of the annual election, the next annual election shall be held
on the day determined on at such meeting, and the terms of the vestrymen
and churchwardens which, pursuant to law, would expire at the next
annual election shall expire and their successors shall be elected on
such day. If the meeting determine to change the number of vestrymen and
manner of electing wardens and vestrymen, there shall be elected at the
first annual election thereafter, one-third of the number of vestrymen
so determined on, to hold office for three years; one-third thereof to
hold office for two years; and one-third thereof to hold office for one
year; and one churchwarden to hold office for one year, and one to hold
for two years; and thereafter at the annual election there shall be
elected one-third of the number of vestrymen determined on at such
meeting and one churchwarden. Any Protestant Episcopal parish,
heretofore incorporated, which has changed the number of its vestrymen
and the manner of electing wardens and vestrymen pursuant to the
provisions of this section, may make further changes in the number of
its vestrymen in the manner provided in section forty-four of this
chapter.