A synod (also known as a council) is a council of a church, usually a Christian church, convened to decide an issue of doctrine or administration. An ecumenical council is so named because it is a synod of the whole church (or, more accurately, of what those who call it consider to be the whole church.)
The word comes from the Greek "synodos" meaning assembly, and it is synonymous with the Latin word "concilium" - council. Originally synods were meetings of bishops, and is still used in that sense in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
In the Catholic and Orthodox churches, synods are composed of bishops while in the Anglican Communion, General Synods are elected by clergy and laity.
In some Presbyterian polities of church, a synod is a level of administration between the general assembly and the local presbytery. This applies in the Uniting Church in Australia which incorporated many Presbyterians and their ideas when they united with Congregational and Methodist members. In most Anglican churches, there is a geographical hierarchy of synods, with "General Synod" at the top; bishops, clergy and laity meet as "houses" within the synod.
Sometimes the phrase general synod or general council refers to an ecumenical council. The word synod also refers to the standing council of high-ranking bishops governing some of the autocephalousEastern Orthodox churches.
A synod (also known as a council) is a council of a church, usually a Christianchurch, convened to decide an issue of doctrine or administration.
In the Catholic and Orthodox churches, synods are composed of bishops while in the Anglican Communion, General Synods are elected by clergy and laity.
In Lutheran traditions a synod can be either a local administrative region similar to a diocese, such as the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical LutheranChurch in America, or denote an entire church body, such as the LutheranChurch - Missouri Synod.
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