Page:A short account of the rise and progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America.djvu/23

This page has been validated.

22

majority of the Trustees, local preachers, exhorters and class leaders of the aforesaid church. And if either of the said African brethren shall graduate into holy orders, it shall be done in such manner and way as the General Conference has directed. And it is provided and agreed, that the said Elder may claim, for himself and his white brethren, and shall have and possess a right to preach once on every Sunday, and once during the course of the week (and no more when there is a sufficient number of African Preachers) in any or all the houses set apart and built, or to be set apart and built, by the aforesaid Trustees or their successors, of the said African Zion Church, in the city and suburbs of New York.

article xi.

It is provided and declared, that no powers and authorities hereby given to the aforementioned Trustees, shall be understood, taken or construed in any wise to prohibit or prevent the Elder for the time being, duly authorised and appointed as aforesaid, the religious use, benefit and enjoyment of the Church known by the name of Zion Church, or of any other church or churches, which at any time hereafter may be purchased or built by the said Corporation, or in any other way become their property, in the city of New- York or the suburbs thereof; but that the same shall be and forever hereafter continue to be had, used and enjoyed by the said Elder for the time being, as heretofore; and by no other person whatever, of another denomination, unless by the particular license and consent of the Elder for the time being, with the concurrence of two-thirds of the Trustees for the time being;