Form of Government Chapter 20
Incorporation and Corporations
The General Synod, the several presbyteries and the several churches may maintain corporations to handle affairs pertaining to property and other temporal matters, which do not come properly under the jurisdiction of the courts themselves.
Only communicant members of a particular church in good and regular standing who are at least twenty-one years of age shall be entitled to vote at corporation meetings of the particular church; voting by proxy shall not be permitted, nor shall any one be allowed to vote except when the vote is being taken, subject to the laws of the State of incorporation.
The Board of Trustees of a particular Church shall consist of the acting, ruling elders in that church or, if the Church so elect, the acting ruling elders and the acting deacons in that Church. However, an exception to the above is permitted in the case of a church organized and established prior to its reception.
All particular churches shall be entitled to hold, own, and enjoy their own local properties, without any right of reversion whatsoever to the Bible Presbyterian Church, its presbyteries, synods, or any other courts hereafter created, its trustees or other officers.
The provisions of this chapter are to be construed as a solemn covenant whereby the Church as a whole undertakes never to attempt to secure possession of the property of any congregation against its will, whether or not such congregation remains within or chooses to withdraw from this body. All officers and courts of the Church are hereby prohibited from making any such attempt. The provisions of sections 4 and 5 of this chapter are unamendable and irrevocable.