What is a Synod

What is a Synod and its purpose?

A Synod is basically an ecclesiastic council, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word synod comes from the Greek: σύνοδος [ˈsinoðos] meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin word concilium meaning "council". 

When was the first council?

The Church has been having “councils” or meetings to figure things out since the time of the Apostles. The first church council was the meeting that Paul had with Peter, James, and the Apostles to deal with the issue of circumcision for Gentile converts. That was the Council of Jerusalem, and it happened around 48 AD (see Acts 15).

Since then, every time the Church encountered an issue that required clarification, a council was held.

Do we know of any well-known councils? 

The most well-known are Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon, Lateran IV, Trent, and Vatican II. These were all called in order to respond to a crisis, heresy, or question, and as a result, doctrine was defined.

For example, the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 gave us the Nicaean Creed. It also: defined the divine nature of God the Son and his relationship to God the Father; defined the universal observance of the date of Easter, and promulgated early canon law.

The Council of Rome in AD 382 defined the complete list of canonical books of both the Old and New Testaments.

The Council of Trent (1545–1563) was a response to the Reformation. It affirmed the role and canon of Scripture and defined the seven Sacraments.

In total, the Roman Catholic Church has held 21 councils. These were referred to as “ecumenical councils”. That means that the voting members come from the whole world (from the Greek oikoumene, referring to the “whole inhabited world”).

The last council was the 2nd Vatican Council (1962–1965) which was called by Pope John XXIII, not as a response to any specific issue that needed to be defined but as a desire for the Church to relate to the modern world.

According to some opinions, the 2nd Vatican Council was probably the last Church council because the Church now has synods. (After Vatican II, Pope Paul VI established the Synod of Bishops, an advisory board to the Holy Father. Since then, the bishops meet in assemblies (synods) and make recommendations to the pope. Since 1967, there have been 16 ordinary synods, 3 extraordinary synods, and 11 special synods).

Further brief on Ordinary, Extraordinary and Special Assemblies (Synods)

Ordinary Assemblies: These are synods that deal with universal topics that are pastoral in character and contemporary. Most synods that we can recall from recent years have been ordinary:

2001 "The Bishop: Servant of the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST for the hope of the world"

2005 "The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church"

2008 "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church"

2012 "New Evangelisation for the Transmission of the Christian Faith"

2018 “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment”

Extraordinary Assemblies: These deal with more urgent matters. For this reason these are shorter and with fewer participants. The most recent extraordinary synod was the 2014 one dealing with the "pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelization".

Special Assemblies: These deal with issues that are specific to a particular geographical area. There have been special synods for each continent of the world, Africa, America, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Middle East. The most recent one was on the Pan-Amazon Region in 2019.

Further:

The next Synod of Bishops is on the topic of synodality. This synodal process began in October 2021 and will conclude in October 2023 and will be hearing more on this topic in forthcoming days.

Pope Francis is a big fan of the synodal process. 

Synods work because that word, “synod”, doesn’t just mean meeting or assembly. It also means "walking together". A good image to keep in mind is Jesus walking together with the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35).

The most important thing that we have to remember about synods is that a synodal church is a listening church. A synod is a “walking with”, and that’s what we are called to do as Church.

At the end of the concluding address by Pope Francis from the 2015 Synod on the Family he said:

“To conclude the Synod means to return to our true 'journeying together' in bringing to every part of the world, to every diocese, to every community and every situation, the light of the Gospel, the embrace of the Church and the support of God’s mercy!”

Ultimately that is what we do as a Church: We meet people where they are in every place and in every situation. We walk with them, we listen to them, and then we try to do our best to bring to them the truth and the light of the Gospel, the good news! And then we continue to walk with them, through their joys and struggles, through their hopes and fears: We share with them Jesus himself, and then we let Jesus do the rest!

And so, a synod on synodality is really a synod about what it means to be Church.

(Synodality in the Catholic Church is a term "often used to describe the process of fraternal collaboration and discernment that bodies like the [Synod of Bishops] were created to express.")

• Sourced from various sites