JAMAICA
No. 11-1976
The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church (Incorporation and Vesting) Act, 1976
F. A. Glasspole
Governor-General
[2nd April 1976]
AN ACT for the Incorporation of The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church and the Vesting of certain Property in the Body so Incorporated.
Whereas the persons hereinafter named and other persons inhabitants of this Island have been associated together under the name of "The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church" for the teaching and spreading of belief in the Bible, the Moral Laws of God, the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, and to safeguard and transmit to posterity the purity and righteousness of the precepts and teachings as taught by them :
And whereas property, both real and personal, in Jamaica is held or possessed by divers persons so associated in trust or for the benefit or on behalf of the Church :
And whereas it is expedient and desirable that there should be a corporate body in which may be vested the real and personal property already and hereafter to be acquired in Jamaica by the persons so associated and possessed of the powers by this Act inferred :
Be it enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Representatives of Jamaica, and by the authority of the same as follows :
Short title.
1—This Act may be cited as The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church (Incorporation and Vesting) Act, 1976.
Interpretation.
2—In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:—
"The Church" means the persons for the time being associated in Jamaica under the name of The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church.
"The Corporation" means the body incorporated by this Act.
Incoporation of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church.
3—(1) The following persons, that is to say, Keith Gordon of 20 Sirgany Drive, Kingston 2 in the Parish of Kingston, Chief Elder; Laurenton Dickens of 8 Crieffe Road, Kingston 5 in the Parish of Saint Andrew, Elder; Walter Wells of Mandeville in the Parish of Manchester, Elder; Isaah Williams of 22 Sirgany Drive, Kingston 2 in the Parish of Kingston, Elder; and Victor Whitely of 22 Sirgany Drive, Kingston 2 in the Parish of Kingston, General Secretary; and their successors for the time being in their respective offices shall be and are hereby declared and appointed a Corporation or Body Corporate to have continuance forever and perpetual succession by the name of "The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church" and possessed of a Corporate Seal and by that name may sue and be sued in all Courts in Jamaica.
(2) No act or proceedings of the Corporation shall be invalidated by reason of any vacancy in the body or in any of the offices mentioned in the proceeding subsection or by any defects in the appointment of any person to any such office.
(3) The Seal of the Corporation shall be of such design and pattern as the Corporation may from time to time determine.
(4) Upon the recording in the Record Office on the lodging at the Office of Titles of Certificate under the Seal of the Corporation of the appointment of any persons to any office mentioned in subsection (1) of this section the person named in such certificate shall be deemed to be the holder of the office named therein until the recording or lodging of a certificate of the appointment of another person to such office.
(5) No deed or document purporting to be executed by the Corporation shall be of any force or validity unless it is sealed with the Seal of the Corporation and signed by not less than two members of the Corporation one of whom shall be the Chief Elder for the time being of the Church.
Realty and Personalty vested in the Corporation Subject to all Trusts, Mortgages, Etc.
4—(1) All lands and hereditaments specified in the Schedule to this Act and all other lands and hereditaments and all goods, chattels and personal property in Jamaica which are now legally and equitably the property of the Church or are now held in trust for the purpose of the Church, as by the Officials, Ministers or members of the Church or any of them are hereby transferred and vested in the Corporation, their successors and assigns subject to all trusts, mortgages, charges, rights, reservations or encumbrances (if any) affecting the same or any part thereof.
(2) All property real and personal in the island of Jamaica devised or bequeathed by will or otherwise given to the Church or to any person for the benefit of the Church, shall be held by, and is hereby vested in, and shall be deemed to be the property of the Corporation.
Powers of the Corporation.
5—The Corporation shall have the following powers:—
(a) to acquire, hold, purchase, lease, possess and enjoy any lands and hereditaments whatsoever in fee simple for leasehold or for any other estate or interest therein, and all property, real, personal, or mixed;
(b) to give, grant, let, charge, improve, manage, develop, exchange, lease, mortgage, sell, convey, assign, dispose of, turn to account or otherwise deal with all or any of the property, both present and future, so held or any part thereof;
(c) to borrow, raise or secure the payment of money in such manner as may be thought fit and in particular by the issue of debenture or scrip charged upon all or any of the property (both present and future) held by or vested in the Corporation, and to redeem and pay off any such securities;
(d) to appoint a person or persons as the Attorney or Attorneys of the Corporation either generally or for a limited period and for such purposes and with such powers as may be stated in the Power of Attorney and to revoke any such appointment;
(e) to make such rules and by-laws as it may think fit in order to carry out the purposes of this Act.
Saving of Prerogative.
6—Nothing in the Act shall prejudice or affect the rights of Her Majesty the Queen, Her Heirs and Successors, the Government of Jamaica or of any body politic or corporate or of any other person or persons, except such as are mentioned in this Act and those claiming by, from, through or under them.
1. All that parcel of land part of Ward's Bay situate at Alligator Pond in the Parish of Manchester containing by survey two roods and twenty-seven perches and being the land comprised in Volume 747 Folio 38 of the Register Book of Titles.
2. All that parcel of land part of Balvenie in the Parish of Manchester containing by survey twelve thousand two hundred and twenty-four square feet and being the land comprised in Volume 1060 Folio 48 of the Register Book of Titles.
3. All that parcel of land part of Balvenie in the Parish of Manchester containing by survey nine thousand one hundred and thirty-eight square feet and being the land comprised in Volume 1060 Folio 49 of the Register Book of Titles.
4. All that parcel of land part of Balvenie in the Parish of Manchester containing by survey eleven thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven square feet and being the land comprised in Volume 1060 Folio 42 of the Register Book of Titles.
Passed in the House of Representatives with four (4) amendments, this 23rd day of March, 1976.
R. S. Macpherson,
Speaker.
Passed in the Senate this 26th day of March, 1976.
Richard Byfield,
President.
This printed impression has been carefully compared by me with the authenticated impression of the foregoing Act, and has been found by me to be a true and correct printed copy of the said Act.
H. D. Carberry
Clerk to Houses of Parliament.