Ohio Code § 1715.12

§ 1715.12.

When a presbytery, synod, conference, diocesan convention, or other representative

body of a religious denomination in this state, or an assembly, synod, conference,

convention, or other general ecclesiastical body of a religious denomination in the

United States, desires to create a board of trustees for an endowment fund or other

property of the denomination represented by that body and when, at a regular meeting

of that body, it elects not fewer than five members of such denomination, at least

one of whom is a resident freeholder in this state, to serve as trustees, and makes

and files in the office of the secretary of state a statement giving the names of

those trustees, the character of the endowment fund or other property to be entrusted

to their care, and the uses to which it is to be applied, which statement is signed

by any authorized officer, acknowledged before a clerk of a court of record, a notary

public, or a judicial officer having a seal, and recorded in the secretary of state's

office, such signature being attested by the officer before whom the statement is

acknowledged, then the persons named in the statement as trustees and their successors

in office shall thereupon become a body corporate and politic for the purpose specified

in such statement.  A copy of the record, certified by the secretary of state, shall be evidence of

the existence of the corporation. The statement may provide that the corporation may purchase, sell, lease, mortgage,

or otherwise encumber any real estate which it owns, or in which it has an interest,

without petitioning for or obtaining an order of any court for permission to do so,

and this provision in the statement, or in any properly adopted, certified, and filed

amendment to the statement, shall give full power to the corporation to execute any

deed, lease, mortgage, or other encumbrance of any such property without obtaining

the order of any court.  A covenant in the deed, lease, mortgage, or other encumbrance that the statement

or amendment contains such provision shall be conclusive evidence that the corporation

is authorized to execute the encumbrance. Section 1715.39 of the Revised Code does not apply to a corporation created under this section. If such a board of trustees is chosen to take charge of an endowment fund, it may

invest, manage, and dispose of that fund in accordance with the purpose for which

the fund was created, subject to such regulations as the body by which the board was

elected prescribes. If the board is chosen to take charge of and manage property, other than an endowment

fund, owned by such religious denomination, that board may hold, invest, control,

and manage that property for the benefit of the denomination, within the presbytery,

synod, conference, diocese, or other ecclesiastical territorial limits represented

by the board, subject to the direction of the proper representative body of the denomination

within such limits.  If a parish or congregation connected with the denomination represented by the board

becomes extinct by reason of the death or dispersion of its members, the board may

take possession of the church property of the parish, congregation, or society, whether

real or personal, and may rent, lease, sell, invest, or otherwise dispose of the property

for the benefit of the denomination, within the territorial limits represented by

the body by which the board was appointed, and subject to such regulations as the

body prescribes.  All property held by the board, and the proceeds of the property, shall be applied

to the use and benefit of the proper denomination within this state.