To provide for the incorporation of the Kowloon Tong Church of the Chinese Christian and Missionary Alliance.
[2 June 1950]
(Format changes—E.R. 1 of 2017)
This Ordinance may be cited as the Kowloon Tong Church of the Chinese Christian and Missionary Alliance Incorporation Ordinance.
The trustees for the time being of the Kowloon Tong Church of the Chinese Christian and Missionary Alliance shall be a body corporate, hereinafter called the corporation, and shall have the name “The Trustees of the Kowloon Tong Church of the Chinese Christian and Missionary Alliance”, and in that name shall have perpetual succession and shall and may sue and be sued in all courts in Hong Kong and shall and may have and use a common seal and may break, change, alter and make anew the said seal.
(Amended 32 of 1999 s. 3)
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 government, municipality, corporation, company or person, and also to purchase, acquire and possess vessels and other 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 vessels or other 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 may borrow or raise moneys, with or without security, on the terms and in the manner that the corporation thinks appropriate. (Added 24 of 2016 s. 3)
The legal estate in any property whatsoever transferred to the corporation in any manner whatsoever shall in the event of the death of any of the trustees for the time being or in the event of any trustee ceasing to hold office as such trustee vest in the trustees for the time being duly appointed.
The number of the trustees shall be not less than three nor more than five.
The office of any trustee shall be automatically vacated if such trustee shall die or shall resign his office or if a resolution be passed at a meeting of members of the said Kowloon Tong Church requiring the resignation of such trustee or if his term of office shall come to an end.
New trustees shall be proposed for election by the committee at a general meeting of the members of the said Kowloon Tong Church and when elected shall (subject to the provisions of section 6) hold office for the term of five years from the date of such election. Trustees whose term of office has expired shall be eligible for re-election.
Any change in membership of the trustees shall within three weeks of such change be notified by the publication of a notice in the Gazette.
No such change shall be deemed to have been made until a notification of such change has been published in the Gazette.
The production of a copy of the Gazette containing any such notification shall be prima facie evidence of a change in membership of the trustees.
The trustees shall when required by the Chief Executive furnish to him satisfactory proof of the succession, election or appointment of any new trustee. (Amended 32 of 1999 s. 3)
All deeds, documents and other instruments requiring the seal of the corporation shall be sealed in the presence of three or more of the trustees and shall also be signed by three of the trustees so present and such signing shall be and be taken as sufficient evidence of the due sealing thereof.
A committee of management, hereinafter called the committee, shall be elected from among and at a meeting of the members of the said Kowloon Tong Church and those elected shall appoint a chairman, a secretary and a treasurer from those elected. One third of the committee shall retire annually but shall be eligible for re-election.
The committee may appoint a clergyman or pastor to perform and carry on divine worship and the services usual in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Churches and may also remove him and appoint a successor and all matters connected with the religious services of the said Kowloon Tong Church shall be under the immediate direction of the clergyman or pastor subject to the control of the committee.
The temporal affairs of the said Kowloon Tong Church shall be managed, directed and governed by the committee.
All books, deeds, papers and other documents belonging to the said Kowloon Tong Church shall be under the care and custody of the chairman of the committee.
The committee may by regulation provide for the following matters—
the number, qualification and disqualification of members of the committee;
the holding of meetings of the committee and the conduct of business thereat;
the temporary appointment of a clergyman or pastor during the absence from any cause of the holder of that post;
the election and tenure of office of an auditor and the filling up of casual vacancies among the committee;
the appointment, tenure of office, salary and duties of any organist or other officer or servant as the committee may think necessary or expedient;
the keeping of a register of members of the said Kowloon Tong Church and of baptisms, marriages and burials;
the holding of meetings of members, the right of voting and the taking and recording of the votes at such meetings and the conduct of business thereat;
the appropriation, allotment, arrangement and use of the sittings in the said Kowloon Tong Church;
the rents and subscriptions (if any) to be paid for sittings in the said Kowloon Tong Church and the mode of collection thereat, the fees to be taken for baptisms, marriages and burials or other services and the collection and disposition of money offerings, offertories and donations;
the keeping of accounts of monies received and expended by the committee;
the erection and maintenance of monuments, tablets, or other memorials in the said Kowloon Tong Church or in the precincts thereof and the fees to be taken therefor; and
all other matters relating to the affairs of the said Kowloon Tong Church or of the committee otherwise than where specifically provided for by this Ordinance.
No regulations made by the committee under section 14 shall be binding on the members of the said Kowloon Tong Church until such regulations have been passed by a majority of members present and voting at a general meeting of members.
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.
(Amended 32 of 1999 s. 3)