Editing Synod (section)

{{short description|Council of a church, convened to resolve issues of doctrine or administration}}
{{about||the recurring astronomical alignments of celestial bodies, or "synodic period"|Orbital period|the consensus algorithm for fault tolerant distributed systems|Paxos (computer science)}}
[[File:Anonymous Diocesan synod in Kraków's Saint Mary's Church.jpg|thumb|250px|Diocesan synod in [[Kraków]] in 1643 presided by Bishop [[Piotr Gembicki]]]]
{{Christianity|expanded=Related}}

A '''synod''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɪ|n|ə|d}}) 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 [[Ancient Greek]] {{Lang|el|σύνοδος}} ({{Transliteration|el|synodos}}) {{gloss|assembly, meeting}}; the term is analogous with the Latin word {{Lang|la|concilium}} {{gloss|council}}. Originally, synods were meetings of [[bishop]]s, and the word is still used in that sense in [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholicism]],{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} [[Oriental Orthodoxy]] and [[Eastern Orthodoxy]]. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not. It is also sometimes used to refer to a church that is governed by a 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 [[autocephaly|autocephalous]] [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] and [[Oriental Orthodox Church|Oriental Orthodox]] churches. Similarly, the day-to-day governance of [[patriarch]]al and [[major archbishop|major archiepiscopal]] [[Eastern Catholic Churches]] is entrusted to a permanent synod.