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Old talk
editI believe the article should be split into Synod, about ancient synods that were convened from time to time, and Holy Synod, about the permanent governing bodies in Imperial Russia and Greece. --Ghirla -трёп- 15:00, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
I believe this article as it currently stands represents a Latin (ie, Western Catholic) biased POV, not objective. (Drawing too heavily from the old Catholic Encyclopedia poses such an occupational hazard. In respect of the current topic the CE is anti-Orthodox and Rome-centric, comprehending the Christian East little if at all.) Specifically, it presumes "papal" Church government for Eastern Churches/Patriarchates from the earliest centuries, as the standard Latin accounts presume for the West, ie, that Patriarchs were 'little popes' ruling over their brother Bishops, which is utterly false and incorrect. The fact that today's Eastern Catholic patriarchs and major archbishops are papal or nearly papal in administration, and their synods mainly consultative, does not reflect historic Eastern practice in most cases. Neither does the current conciliarity (what the article currently calls with horror 'parliamentary') of Orthodox Churches represent a novelty in Christendom, far less a complete borrowing from Lutheranism (though certain historically unusual features of the pre-Revolutionary Russian Synod, and the Synod of Greece, certainly were). The Orthodox Episcopate has always been conciliar, even if at certain times in certain places Orthodox Patriarchs or Primates were required to act temporarily less collaboratively. Also, the piece ignores the vital pre-patriarchal (not to say pre-Papal) significance of Provincial Synods, not only the extraordinary ad hoc ones, but the ordinary semi-annual ones, throughout the Empire of the Romans. --Peter 13:00 UTC, 27 November 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.162.113.76 (talk) 14:17, 27 November 2008 (UTC)