Ecclesiastical Corporations Law & Legal Definition

Ecclesiastical corporations are created to enable religious societies to manage with more facility and advantage the temporalities belonging to the church or congregation.

Ecclesiastical corporations are either sole or aggregate. The members composing which are all spiritual persons, such as bishops, certain deans, and prebendaries, all archdeacons, parsons, and vicars are corporation’s sole, and such corporations aggregate as deans and chapters, prior and convent (formerly), abbots and monks, and the like.

Ecclesiastical corporations are also called religious corporations.

The following is an example of a State Statute (Michigan) on ecclesiastical corporations:

MCLS § 450.178. Ecclesiastical corporations are formed by any number of persons, not less than 3. It is incorporated for the purpose of establishing any church organization for the purpose of teaching and spreading their religious beliefs and principles. Further, every such corporation should be a non-profit corporation.