To provide for the incorporation of the Church Body of the China Congregational Church in Hong Kong.
[1 November 1912]
(Format changes—E.R. 2 of 2022)
This Ordinance may be cited as the China Congregational Church Ordinance.
(Amended 5 of 1924 s. 6)
The members of the church body of the China Congregational Church in Hong Kong shall be a body corporate under the name of “The Church Body of the China Congregational Church in Hong Kong”, hereinafter called the corporation. (Amended 43 of 1912; G.N. 246 of 1913 Supp. Schedule)
The corporation by the name aforesaid shall have perpetual succession, and shall and may sue and be sued in all courts, and shall and may have and use a common seal, and may from time to time break, change, alter and make anew the said seal as to the corporation may seem fit. (Amended 43 of 1912; G.N. 246 of 1913 Supp. Schedule)
The corporation shall have 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 and also to invest moneys upon mortgage of any lands, buildings, messuages or tenements, or upon the mortgages, debentures, stocks, funds, shares or securities of any corporation or company, and also to purchase, acquire and possess goods and chattels of what nature and kind soever.
The corporation shall further have power by deed under its seal to grant, sell, convey, assign, surrender, exchange, partition, yield up, mortgage, demise, reassign, transfer or otherwise dispose of any lands, buildings, messuages, tenements, mortgages, debentures, stocks, funds, shares or securities, or goods and chattels, which are for the time being vested in or belonging to the corporation, upon such terms as to the corporation may seem fit.
The corporation shall keep at its principal church or meeting place a register of the members of the China Congregational Church in Hong Kong, and shall enter in such register the names of all such persons as are in the opinion of the corporation proper persons to be admitted as members of the said church. Such book is hereinafter referred to as the register of members, and the persons whose names appear therein as members of the church.
Upon the death or resignation or removal from office of any member of the church body aforesaid, a successor to the person so dying, retiring or being removed shall be appointed by a majority of the members of the church present at a meeting to be convened for the purpose by the corporation. The names of every person so elected shall be entered in the register of members with the date of election and particulars of the office to which such person is elected, and every such entry shall be signed by at least four members of the church body.
(Amended 43 of 1912; G.N. 246 of 1913 Supp. Schedule)
The services of the church shall be regulated and conducted by the pastor of the church for the time being in accordance with the principles of the Christian religion based upon the Old and New Testaments, and in accordance as far as possible with the practice of the Congregational Churches now in existence in Europe and America.
Subject to the provisions of section 5, the corporation may make regulations for the services of the church and the management of its property and affairs generally. All such regulations shall be laid before a meeting of the members convened for the purpose and if approved by a majority of the members present at such meeting shall be binding on the corporation and upon all members of the church. A copy of any such regulations sealed with the common seal of the corporation and countersigned by any four members of the church body shall be accepted as evidence of such regulations having been regularly made and confirmed.
(Amended 43 of 1912; G.N. 246 of 1913 Supp. Schedule)
The regulations may provide for the removal from office or from membership of the church of any member of the church body or the church by the vote of at least two-thirds of the members of the church.
Every meeting held under this Ordinance may be convened by posting a notice of the time and place for holding such meeting, and the nature of the business to be discussed, upon the door of the principal church or other meeting place of the corporation in Hong Kong on the two Sundays next preceding the date of the meeting.
All deeds, documents and other instruments requiring the seal of the corporation shall be sealed with the common seal of the corporation and signed by at least four of the members of the church body for the time being.
Nothing in this Ordinance shall affect or be deemed to affect the rights of the Central Authorities or the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region under the Basic Law and other laws, or the rights of any body politic or corporate or of any other persons except such as are mentioned in this Ordinance and those claiming by, from or under them.
(Replaced 37 of 1950 Schedule. Amended 32 of 1999 s. 3)