§ 7. Acquisition of property by religious corporations for cemetery purposes; management thereof. A religious corporation may take and hold, by purchase, grant, gift or devise, real property for the purposes of a cemetery; or such lot or lots in any cemetery connected with it, as may be conveyed or devised to it, with or without provisions limiting interments therein to particular persons or classes of persons; and may take and hold any property granted, given, devised or bequeathed to it in trust to apply the same or the income or proceeds thereof, under the direction of the trustees of the corporation, for the improvement or embellishment of such cemetery or any lot therein, including the erection, repair, preservation or removal of tombs, monuments, gravestones, fences, railings or other erections, or the planting or cultivation of trees, shrubs, plants, or flowers in or around any such cemetery or cemetery lots.

A religious corporation may erect upon any property held by it for cemetery purposes, a suitable building for religious services for the burial of the dead, or for the use of the keepers or other persons employed in connection therewith, and may sell and convey lots in such cemetery for burial purposes, subject to such conditions and restrictions as may be imposed by the instrument by which the same was acquired, or by the rules and regulations adopted by such corporation. Every such conveyance of a lot or plat for burial purposes, signed, sealed and acknowledged in the same manner as a deed to be recorded, may be recorded in like manner and with like effect as a deed of real property.

Notwithstanding the provisions of § 451 of the real property law or any other provision of law to the contrary, a religious corporation that prior to January first, nineteen hundred eighty-four received a special permit from the zoning board of appeals for the use of certain real property as a cemetery and which actually used such real property for cemetery purposes, may use such real property for cemetery purposes without the consent of the county legislative body for the county in which such real property is situated.

No religious corporation owning, managing or controlling a cemetery shall, directly or indirectly:

(a) sell, or have, enter into or perform a lease of any of its real property dedicated to cemetery purposes or adjacent thereto to a funeral entity, or use any of its property for locating a funeral entity;

(b) commingle its funds with a funeral entity;

(c) direct or carry on its cemetery related business or affairs with a funeral entity;

(d) authorize control of its cemetery related business or affairs by a funeral entity;

(e) engage in any sale or cross-marketing of goods or services with a funeral entity;

(f) have, enter into or perform a management or service contract for cemetery operations with a funeral entity; or

(g) have, enter into or perform a management contract with any entity other than a not-for-profit cemetery or religious corporation.

Only the provisions of subparagraphs (a) and (b) of the previous paragraph shall apply to religious corporations with thirty acres or less of real property dedicated to cemetery purposes, and only to the extent the sale or lease is of real property dedicated to cemetery purposes, and such cemeteries shall not engage in the sale of funeral home goods or services, except if such goods and services are otherwise permitted to be sold by cemeteries. No religious corporation shall approve or authorize the construction of a mausoleum or columbarium on property owned by the religious corporation where such mausoleum or columbarium shall be the only form of interment offered for cemetery purposes unless a management contract has been entered into with an existing cemetery corporation regulated under article fifteen of the not-for-profit corporation law, that will provide operational management of the mausoleum or columbarium, and the owner of the mausoleum or columbarium has reserved interment space and secured interment services in a cemetery regulated under this article, in order to assure continued perpetual care of the remains contained in the mausoleum or columbarium should such mausoleum or columbarium become abandoned or choose to cease operations.