When trustees have been chosen before February 1, 1877 by an assembly of a church or religious society, in accordance with its constitution, rules, or usages, and a certificate of the choice made by its presiding officer and secretary, or either of them, specifying the trustees’ corporate name and recorded, with intent to make them a corporate body, they must in all legal proceedings be considered a religious corporation under this chapter from the time of the recording of the certificate. Their later acts as a corporation are valid under this chapter. Conveyances to them as a corporation are confirmed.