In the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

, the model of government is the 'Bishop in

Synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''wikt:synod, synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin ...

', meaning that a diocese is governed by a bishop acting with the advice and consent of representatives of the clergy and laity of the diocese. In much of the Communion the body by which this representation is achieved is called the diocesan synod. (In the Episcopal Church in the US, the corresponding body is called a diocesan convention.) The precise composition of a diocesan synod is subject to provincial and local canon and practice.

Church of England

In the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

diocesan synods exist under the terms of the Synodical Government Measure 1969. A diocesan synod consists of three Houses, as follows: * The

House of Bishops The House of Bishops is the third House in a General Synod of some Anglican churches and the second house in the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

consists of the diocesan

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, together with any stipendiary

suffragan bishop A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...

s or area bishops, and

assistant bishop An assistant bishop in the Anglican Communion is a bishop appointed to assist a diocesan bishop. Church of England In the established Church of England, assistant bishops are usually retired (diocesan or suffragan) bishops – in which case they ...

s as nominated by the diocesan bishop with the agreement of the

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

. * The

House of Clergy The House of Clergy is the middle house in the tricameral Church of England General Synod legislature. It consists of representatives of the ordained clergy of the Church of England. Composition The House of Clergy comprises ordained members o ...

consists of clergy representatives chosen by the clergy in each

deanery synod In the Church of England and other Anglicanism, Anglican churches, a deanery synod is a Synod#Anglican usage, synod convened by the ''Rural Dean'' (or ''Area Dean'') and/or the Joint Lay Chair of the Deanery Synod, who is elected by the elected lay ...

, together with a number of ''ex officio'' members – any other assistant bishops working in the diocese; the

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

of the cathedral; the

archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...

s of the diocese; the clergy elected to the

General Synod The General Synod is the title of the governing body of some church organizations. Anglican Communion The General Synod of the Church of England, which was established in 1970 replacing the Church Assembly (Church of England), Church Assembly, is t ...

for the diocese (known as

Proctors Proctor's Theatre (officially stylized as Proctors since 2007; however, the marquee retains the apostrophe) is a theatre and former vaudeville house located in Schenectady, New York, United States. Many famous artists have performed there, notably ...

to the Lower House of

Convocation A convocation (from the Latin ''wikt:convocare, convocare'' meaning "to call/come together", a translation of the Ancient Greek, Greek wikt:ἐκκλησία, ἐκκλησία ''ekklēsia'') is a group of people formally assembled for a speci ...

), and some others. * The

House of Laity The House of Laity is the lower house in the tricameral General Synod of the Church of England legislature. They are responsible for representing the laity of the Church of England in the legislature. They are indirectly elected every 5 years by me ...

consists of representatives of the laity, elected from each

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residenc ...

by the members of that deanery's

. There are also ''ex officio'' members, including the lay representatives elected by the Diocese to the

. Clergy and lay elected representatives are elected for a three-year term of office. The first diocesan synods met in 1970, and elections have been held every three years since, most recently in 2018. Election is by the members of the deanery synods of the diocese, and the number of representatives of each deanery is in proportion to the total number of 'members' of the churches in that deanery, compared with the diocese as a whole. The House of Clergy and the House of Laity should have approximately the same number of members. The method of election may be by simple plurality (i.e.,

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

) or by

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

, and each diocesan synod may choose between these two. In general the three Houses of the diocesan synod meet together, debate together and vote together, and a majority is assumed to be a majority of each of the three Houses. However, a vote by Houses can be requested, and in certain cases is required. In a vote by Houses, the consent of each of the three Houses is required in order for the assent of the Synod to be given. In addition, the diocesan bishop may declare that the House of Bishops shall only be deemed to have assented if the assenting majority includes the bishop. This means that the diocesan bishop may exercise a veto over the diocesan synod if they so wish.

Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia

The governing bodies of

Episcopal Unit In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

s in the three-''tikanga'' church are each referred to by names appropriate to their ''tikanga''s language: the New Zealand and Polynesia dioceses by ''diocesan synods'',

Te Pīhopatanga o Aotearoa Te Pīhopatanga o Aotearoa is home to Māori Anglicans across Aotearoa (New Zealand), and one of the three Tikanga (cultural streams) of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. The first Māori Bishop was appointed in 1928, and ...

by '' te rūnanganui'' ("great assembly") and the other ''pīhopatanga'' by ''hui amorangi''. These smaller ''pīhopatangas ''hui amorangi'' ("governing bodies") are not exactly equivalent to diocesan synods in that they are not fully independent of ''te rūnanganui''.anglican.org.nz
/ref>

References

{{reflist Anglican organizations Governing assemblies of religious organizations