N.Y. Relig. Corp. Law § 116
If the trustees of an incorporated Evangelical Lutheran church shall at any time be elective in pursuance of article ten of this chapter, the church may, at an annual corporate meeting, if notice thereof be given with the notice of such meeting determine that the minister or ministers and elders and deacons thereof shall thereafter constitute the trustees thereof, and thereon the trustees of such church shall sign, acknowledge and cause to be filed and recorded, a certificate stating the fact of such determination, and the name of the minister or ministers, if any, and of the elders and deacons of such church; and thereon the terms of office of such elective trustees shall cease, and the minister or ministers and the elders and deacons of such church, and their successors in office shall, by virtue of their respective offices, be the trustees of such church. If, at any time, the officers of an incorporated Evangelical Lutheran church which officers by virtue of their offices constitute the trustees thereof shall determine to submit to a meeting of such church corporation, the question whether the trustees of such church shall be thereafter elective in pursuance of article ten of this chapter, they shall cause a corporate meeting of such church to be called and held in the manner provided in sections one hundred and ninety-four and one hundred and ninety-five of this chapter, and such corporate meeting shall determine whether the trustees of such church shall thereafter be elective in pursuance of article ten of this chapter, and also whether the number of such trustees shall be three, six or nine, and the date of the annual corporate meeting of the church. If such meeting shall determine that such trustees shall thereafter be elective, the presiding officer thereof and at least two other persons present and voting thereat, shall sign, acknowledge and cause to be filed and recorded in the office of the clerk of the county in which the certificate of incorporation of such church is filed, a certificate of such determination of such meeting; and thereafter the trustees of such church shall be elective in pursuance of article ten of this chapter. At the next annual corporate meeting after the filing of such certificate, one-third of the number of trustees so determined on shall be elected to hold office for one year, one-third for two years, and one-third for three years, and the officers of such church who by virtue of their offices have been trustees of such church, shall then cease to be such trustees, and thereafter article ten of this chapter shall apply to such church. At each subsequent annual corporate meeting of such church, one-third of the number of trustees so determined on shall be elected to hold office for three years.
N.Y. Relig. Corp. Law § 116