SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act shall take
effect October 1, 1999.

Approved May 13, 1999.

CHAPTER 308
(Senate Bill 20)

AN ACT concerning

Protestant Episcopal Church, Diocese of Easton

FOR the purpose of repealing certain uncodified provisions of law relating to the
Protestant Episcopal Church, Diocese of Easton, commonly known as the
"Vestry Act"; requiring certain religious corporations to adopt bylaws to govern
their corporate and temporal affairs; authorizing bylaws to be adopted by a
majority of the qualified voters voting at a regular or special congregational
meeting called for that purpose; providing that certain religious corporations are
subject to certain constitutions and canons; authorizing the State Department of
Assessments and Taxation to record certain certificates of incorporation;
recognizing the legal existence of certain parishes and congregations as bodies
corporate; estopping all persons, entities, and instrumentalities from denying
the legal and corporate existence of certain bodies corporate; altering a certain
definition; providing for the construction and application of this Act; providing
for the effective date of this Act; and generally relating to the Protestant
Episcopal Church, Diocese of Easton.

BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments,
Article - Corporations and Associations
Section 5-301(e)
Annotated Code of Maryland

(1993 Replacement Volume and 1998 Supplement)

BY adding to

Article - Corporations and Associations

Section 5-337 and 5-338 to be under the new part "Part VI. Protestant

Episcopal Church, Diocese of Easton"
Annotated Code of Maryland

(1993 Replacement Volume and 1998 Supplement)
BY repealing

Chapter 97 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1976, as amended by Chapter
318 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1990

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That the Laws of Maryland read as follows: