SECTION 1. Corporate bodies, church officers as

The deacons, wardens or similar officers of churches or religious societies, and the trustees of the United Methodist churches, appointed according to the discipline and usages thereof, shall, if residents of the commonwealth, be deemed bodies corporate for the purpose of taking and holding in succession all gifts, grants, bequests and devises of real or personal property, made either to them and their successors, or to their respective churches, if unincorporated, or to the poor of their churches.