The General Synod is the tricameral deliberative and legislative organ of 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 Brit ...

. The

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

was instituted in 1970, replacing the Church Assembly, and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church of England that had started in the 1850s.

Church Assembly: 1919 to 1970

Before 1919, any change to the church's worship or governance had to be by

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliame ...

, which resulted in little being done. In 1919, the

Convocations A convocation (from the Latin '' convocare'' meaning "to call/come together", a translation of the Greek ἐκκλησία ''ekklēsia'') is a group of people formally assembled for a special purpose, mostly ecclesiastical or academic. In ac ...

of the provinces of

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of t ...

and

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

adopted the constitution of the National Church Assembly proposed by the Representative Church Council and presented it to the king as an appendix to an address. The constitution as proposed to the sovereign was then recognised as already existing in the

Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919 The Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5 c. 76) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that enables the Church of England to submit primary legislation called Measures, for passage by Parliament. Measures have t ...

thus obtaining legal recognition of the assembly without implying that it had been created by Parliament or that Parliament could modify its constitution. By means of the

Parliament then gave the assembly power to prepare Measures which, once presented to Parliament and approved by a special procedure ( see below), were to "have the force and effect of an Act of Parliament" on "any matter concerning the Church of England", and included the power to repeal or amend Acts of Parliament concerning the church. The preparation of such measures lay mainly with a joint Legislative Committee of the three houses of the assembly and this committee negotiated with the parliamentary Ecclesiastical Committee to reach an agreed form. The Act required that, after being passed by the assembly, the measure had to be examined by a joint committee of both Houses of

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

which prepared a report to both houses. If then approved by each House, it was submitted to the

Sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'. The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or ...

for

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...

. If MPs or members of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

were not content with a measure then they could vote to reject it, but not amend it. Once a measure had been agreed ("deemed expedient") by both Houses of Parliament, and received royal assent, it was (from 1926) printed with the Acts of Parliament for the year in question.

General Synod: from 1970

Establishment

By the Synodical Government Measure 1969, the Church Assembly renamed and reconstituted itself as the General Synod of the Church of England. It also took over almost all the powers formerly exercised by the Convocations of Canterbury and York.

Membership

The synod is tricameral, consisting of the House of

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 ...

s, the House of

Clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

and the House of

Laity In religious organizations, the laity () consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non- ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. In both religious and wider secular usage, a lay ...

. There are currently 467 members in total. 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.

is made up of the 30

diocesan 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 ...

bishops in the

Province of Canterbury The Province of Canterbury, or less formally the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces which constitute the Church of England. The other is the Province of York (which consists of 12 dioceses). Overview The Province consist ...

, the 12 diocesan bishops of the

Province of York The Province of York, or less formally the Northern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces making up the Church of England and consists of 12 dioceses which cover the northern third of England and the Isle of Man. York was elevated to ...

, the

Bishop of Dover The Bishop of Dover is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after the town of Dover in Kent. The Bishop of Dover holds the additional title of "Bishop ...

(who functions as diocesan bishop of Canterbury, in the Province of Canterbury), and seven other suffragan bishops (four from Canterbury and three from York) elected by all suffragan bishops. 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 ...

comprises clergy elected by the following: * 128 elected from the dioceses of the Province of Canterbury, * 54 elected from the dioceses of the Province of York, * 4 elected from among clergy teaching in universities or theological colleges. One must be from the Province of York (this arrangement replaced seats for specific universities as of the 2015 election), * 6 deans elected from

Cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...

s, plus either the Dean of Jersey or the

Dean of Guernsey The Dean of Guernsey is the leader of the Church of England in Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark. The dean fulfils the role of Archdeacon, rural Dean, and Bishop's commissary for the Deanery of Guernsey. In Guernsey, the Church of England is the Est ...

, * the 3 Principal Anglican

Chaplains A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intel ...

(and Archdeacons) of the Armed Services, plus the

Chaplain-General of Prisons The Chaplain-General of Prisons is the head of the Church of England's chaplaincy to prisons. He is also an ''ex officio'' member of the House of Clergy of the General Synod The General Synod is the title of the governing body of some church organ ...

(and Archdeacon), and * 2 members of

religious communities Religion is usually defined as a social-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, tra ...

. Members of 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 m ...

are elected by lay members of the

Deanery Synod In the Church of England and other Anglican churches, a deanery synod is a 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 members. It consists of all cler ...

in each Diocese every five years by a system of

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 ...

. There are: * up to 170 members elected by the laity of the Province of Canterbury, * up to 80 members elected by the laity of the Province of York, * the

Dean of the Arches The Dean of the Arches is the judge who presides in the provincial ecclesiastical court of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This court is called the Arches Court of Canterbury. It hears appeals from consistory courts and bishop's disciplinary tribun ...

, * the Vicars-General of the Provinces of Canterbury and York, * the three Church Estate Commissioners, * the Chairman of the Central Board of Finance, * the Chairman of the Church of England Pensions Board, * the members of the

Archbishops' Council The Archbishops' Council is a part of the governance structures of the Church of England. Its headquarters are at Church House, Great Smith Street, London. The council was created in 1999 to provide a central executive body to co-ordinate and lead ...

who are

communicant The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was institut ...

s of the Church of England, * three elected members from the Church of England Youth Council, who are elected every two years. There are two or three synodical sessions per year (4–5 days each), one or two in

Church House A church, church building or church house is a building used for Christian worship services and other Christian religious activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 and 256. From the 11th thr ...

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

, the other at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for post-nominals) is a collegiate research university, located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, co ...

, and each session is officially opened by the monarch. Meetings are presided over by the Archbishops of

and

as joint presidents.

Functions

The functions of the synod are: *legislation: **to pass measures dealing with the government of the church and its institutions, **to pass canons, determining

doctrine Doctrine (from la, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief syste ...

and the form of worship, *to approve the

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

and make other rules and regulations through Acts of Synod, *to regulate relations with other churches, *to consider and express their opinion on any other matters of religious or public interest, and *to approve or reject the annual budget of the church Measures or canons must be passed by a majority of the members of each house of the synod. Most other business can be passed by a majority of the members of the synod overall. However changes to church

, rites and ceremonies, or the administration of the

sacraments A sacrament is a Christian rite that is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of the rea ...

, can only be made in the form agreed by the House of Bishops. Also, changes in the services of

Baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

Holy Communion The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted ...

, as well as proposals for union with any other church, cannot be approved unless they have also been approved by a majority of the

diocesan synod In the Anglican Communion, the model of government is the 'Bishop in Synod', 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 b ...

s. Some measures do not extend to the Diocese of Sodor and Man unless so provided by a measure passed by the Sodor and Man

Diocesan Synod In the Anglican Communion, the model of government is the 'Bishop in Synod', 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 b ...

and approved by

Tynwald Tynwald ( gv, Tinvaal), or more formally, the High Court of Tynwald ( gv, Ard-whaiyl Tinvaal) or Tynwald Court, is the legislature of the Isle of Man. It consists of two chambers, known as the branches of Tynwald: the directly elected House ...

. The General Synod also elects some members of the

References

External links

*
Short film shown at General Synod in November 2015 to portray the Church of England
{{Use dmy dates, date=August 2020 Church of England Law of the United Kingdom Church of England ecclesiastical polity 1919 establishments in England 1970 disestablishments Governing assemblies of religious organizations Tricameral legislatures