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General Synod
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The General Synod is the title of the governing body of some church organizations.
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In the Church of England, General Synod was instituted in 1970 and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church of England that had started in the 1850s.
The General Synod is unique in that it is the only body to which Parliament has delegated the power to pass Measures, which become part of English law. Prior to 1919, any change to the Church's worship or governance had to be by Act of Parliament. In 1919, following a period when Parliament could rarely be bothered to make time for legislating on church business, the Church Assembly, the predecessor of the General Synod, was given the power to create legislation on most matters to do with the Church of England. If Parliament accepts a Measure, then it becomes law; if MPs or members of the House of Lords are not happy with a Measure then they can vote to reject it, but not amend it. Once a measure has been agreed ("deemed expedient") by both Houses of Parliament, it is presented for the Royal Assent, and printed with the Acts of parliament for the year in question.
General Synod is elected every five years by a system of Single Transferable Vote and each session is officially opened by the monarch.
The Synod is divided into the House of Bishops, the House of Clergy and the House of Laity. All diocesan bishops are members of the House of Bishops ex-officio; in addition, seven suffragan bishops are elected by all suffragan bishops. Members of the House of Clergy are elected by the clergy in each Diocese. Members of the House of Laity are elected by lay members of the Deanery Synod in each Diocese. There are 482 General Synod members in total.
There are two or three synodical sessions per year (4-5 days each), one or two in Church House, Westminster, the other at the University of York.
General Synod deals with three main areas:
- Central church business
- Relations with other churches
- Public issues
The General Synod elects some members to the Archbishops' Council.
General Synods of other churches within the Anglican Communion
- Anglican Church of Australia
- Anglican Church of Canada
- Church of Ireland
- Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
- Scottish Episcopal Church
In the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the equivalent is General Convention.
The United Church of Christ in the United States also calls their main governing body a General Synod. It meets every two years and consists of over 600 delegates from various congregations and conferences.
The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church has as its highest Church court the General Synod. The ARP General Synod meets yearly (in recent years, it has, almost without exception, been held at Bonclarken). The delegates to the General Synod of the ARP Church are the elder representatives elected from each church's Session and all ministers from all presbyteries that comprise the Church (excluding ministers and elders from the independent ARP Synods of Mexico and Pakistan).
In the North American Lutheran tradition, General Synod refers to a church body (denomination) which existed from 1820-1918. See General Synod (Lutheran).