New York’s Religious Corporations Law (RCL) recognizes two general categories of houses of worship: hierarchical, where congregations belong to a common ecclesiastical body with other similar houses of worship and with a common ruling convocation or ecclesiastical head, and congregational, which are run and governed by their members.

Once a congregational house of worship is incorporated, its trustees are designated significant authority over its corporate affairs, such as its property and finances, as indicated in RCL §5. The RCL is clear, however, that the critical acts of hiring and firing clergy are not within the power of the trustees of a congregational house of worship.