§ 17-A — Property of extinct Seventh Day Baptist churches and Seventh Day Baptist religious societies

§ 17-a. Property of extinct Seventh Day Baptist churches and Seventh\nDay Baptist religious societies. 1. All property, both personal and\nreal, belonging to or held in trust for any Seventh Day Baptist church\nor any Seventh Day Baptist religious society that has or shall become\nextinct shall vest in and become the property of the Seventh Day Baptist\nmissionary society and its successors and assigns; provided that this\nsection shall not affect the reversionary interest of any person or\ncorporation in said property or any valid lien thereon.\n 2. Any Seventh Day Baptist church or any Seventh Day Baptist religious\nsociety in this state which has ceased or failed, or which shall cease\nor fail, to maintain religious worship or services, or to use its\nproperty for religious worship or services, according to the tenets,\nusages and customs of Seventh Day Baptist churches which are members of\nthe Seventh Day Baptist general conference, for the space of two\nconsecutive years immediately prior to application to the supreme court\nof the state for an order dissolving said church or society as herein\nprovided, or whose membership has so diminished or shall so diminish in\nnumbers or in financial strength as to render it impossible or\nimpracticable for such church or society to maintain religious worship\nor services or to protect its property from exposure to waste or\ndilapidation, or to fulfill the purpose for which it was incorporated,\nshall be deemed and taken to be extinct, and may, by order of the\nsupreme court of the state, be so declared and thereupon dissolved, and\nthe property of such church or society may, by said order, be\ntransferred to, and the title and possession thereof vested in, said\nSeventh Day Baptist missionary society.\n 3. An application for such an order and disposition of property may be\nmade by any member, trustee, or officer of said Seventh Day Baptist\nmissionary society, or any member of such church or society, when duly\nauthorized thereto by the board of trustees of said Seventh Day Baptist\nmissionary society, upon a verified petition setting forth the facts\nauthorizing such order and disposition of property. Upon the\npresentation of such petition to the supreme court of the state, such\ncourt may proceed in a summary manner after such notice as the court may\nprescribe, to inquire into the merits of such application, and if, upon\nexamination by the court, it shall satisfactorily appear that the making\nof the order and the disposition of property applied for is necessary\nand proper, for any of the causes mentioned in subdivision two of this\nsection, such court shall make a final order declaring such church or\nsociety extinct and dissolving the same and transferring any property\nand the title and possession thereof, which may belong to such church or\nsociety, to and vesting the same in said Seventh Day Baptist missionary\nsociety, it being the purpose and intent of this section to preserve to\nthe Seventh Day Baptist denomination all property owned by or held in\ntrust for any such church or society for religious purposes.\n