What are Church run Synods?

Rev dear Rev: What the Dickens are these holy synods that people are now talking about? Is there a font in scripture for them?

Yes, there is a font in scripture. Acts 15 if not Acts 6. The Christian term synodus sacrosancta comes from the old Hebrew word for the Sanhedrin, synedrion. Acts 6 was brought about because of complaints of neglect of the Greek widows. Acts 15 brought about because of the influence of olde worlde Jewish converts. Nicaea I also in 325 AD about Christ, there then follows Ephesus in 431 and Chalcedon in 451, and Elvira about the single life, and Constantinople producing a Creed, and then Trullo - this latter one was quite famous because it was here that the petrine legates from Rome were corrected by the synodal fathers for being too strict about the old discipline of celibacy - the easterners wished for a more flexible, pragmatic approach given the temptations of empire. But the true start date for the diocesan synod as such, as a technical reality begins elsewhere:

1. It is thought by conciliar theologians and petrine canonists that the first diocesan synodus was conducted and celebrated at Rome in 387 under Pope Siricius;

2. There then followed other synods especially in the churches of Carthage and Hippo, across the Med with figures such as Cyprian and Augustine celebrating these;

3. General councils of the Church in larger gatherings just of bishops and their apostles, these also made some mention of the diocesan synod, especially Lateran IV in 1215 and Trent too in Session XXIV from 1563, at which it was decided they were a good thing in those days and that diocesan bishops should schedule a brief synod each year, every year;

4. Then for a long while, for something like 300 years, the diocesan synod fell into disuse and general desuetude from the 1700s onwards, but the old codex of 1917 gave out some hint that they might be possible again, celebrated here once every 10 years, at the various canons on the subject, canons 356 to 362, but we should note that the norms for diocesan synods in the old 1917 codex envisaged a more or less exclusively sacerdotal priestly gathering of the omnium gatherum of worthies in dioceses, there was little scope for deacons and religious and for laity - see the list of invitees at canon 358;

5. But there was some light on the horizon in the modern age, when in a small circular letter to the roman people put out by John XXIII on the 1st February 1959, he gave some hint and hope that diocesan synods might well re-appear in the new era, since in the past they had been very helpful for meeting the spiritual needs of the flocks, they had been good for correcting pastoral abuses, they had been good for urging and encouraging ecclesial laws, and overall for meeting new needs and new concerns from the people of God;

6. So when the general council of the Church at Vatican II was called and convened by the imperial legates of the Roman see, in 1962 to 1965, the decree on bishops called Christus Dominus at 36b, mentioned them again and hoped they would become a sign of ecclesial koinonia again in time;

7. The post-conciliar Revision Commission, producing the last document of the council, the codex, envisaged that the diocesan synod in the future might be regarded as the normal expression of normal ecclesial life in the dioceses of the next 50 years - see Communicationes 1980, page 315, canon 271;

8. Finally after the Plenaria omnium gatherum of bishops and their canonistae, a general discussion in 1981, it was decided to relaunch those diocesan synods in the new codex to come out around 1985, also create a roman synod of bishops as an organ of the Holy See producing a synodal way and pathway to governance by the popes, but especially to provide norms for celebrating diocesan synods all over again, from canons 460 to 468. The list of invitees was expanded in these canons to include secular religious and home grown laity. The rest is history. New norms and a new reality - the synodal pathway is now born.  

I hope this little bit of historical context from some canonist theologians might be useful for your thoughts. Keep in mind the key words of the first general councils of the Church at Acts 6 and then at Acts 15 - "we and the Holy Spirit" - the early synods were intrinsically charismatic in their range and typology of cointeressati - they sought to imbibe and mediate the ponderings of the Spirit about the times the Church now lived in, and to help the young Church walk with humanity, sometimes following, sometimes leading, but always hand in hand with suffering humanity, as per the opening words of Gaudium et Spes, luctus et angores, which were inspired by the Wartime Declaration of the Russian bishops with Josef in the 1940s. The rest is history - Good luck on your diocesan celebrations of this important institute for modern conditions and modern living.