Permanent Synod is the five-member canonical body that assists the patriarch, or by extension a major archbishop, through the counsel, consent, and decisions assigned to it by Eastern canon law.[1]
A standing organ of the patriarchal curia
Canon 114 places the Permanent Synod within the Patriarchal Curia, alongside the curial bishops, ordinary tribunal, finance officer, chancellor, liturgical commission, and other commissions. It gives a patriarch a regularly available episcopal body for matters that cannot prudently await a full session of the Synod of Bishops of the patriarchal Church.[2]
The Permanent Synod is not a smaller version of that full episcopal synod with the same powers. The full synod legislates for the patriarchal Church and performs elections reserved to it, while the Permanent Synod acts only where common or particular law assigns it a decision, consent, or consultation. Canon 152 ordinarily extends this patriarchal structure to a major archiepiscopal Church.
Composition and procedure
Under canon 115 the body consists of the patriarch and four bishops designated for five years. Three bishops are elected by the Synod of Bishops, at least two of whom must be eparchial bishops, while the patriarch appoints the fourth. Four alternates are designated at the same time and, as far as possible, in the same manner.
The patriarch convokes and presides over the sessions. If he is impeded, the member senior in episcopal ordination presides after the membership has again been brought to five; a member whose own person, eparchy, or office is under consideration is heard but replaced for the decision. Participants sign the acts, and votes concerning persons are secret under canons 116–118.
Continuity without unlimited competence
A matter assigned to the Permanent Synod remains reserved to it even while the full Synod of Bishops is meeting, unless the patriarch, with the Permanent Synod's consent, commits the matter to the full synod. This rule prevents the canonical competence of one body from being silently absorbed by another merely because both are available at the same time.
Canon 120 requires regular meetings at least twice each year, as well as whenever the patriarch judges one useful or the law requires its counsel or consent. If grave circumstances make constitution of the body impossible, the Apostolic See is informed and the full synod elects two bishops, including an eparchial bishop, to act with the patriarch temporarily. Its permanence therefore means institutional continuity, not unrestricted executive or legislative authority.
References
- 1.Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches — Official text governing Churches sui iuris, patriarchal and metropolitan structures, hierarchs, enrollment, and inter-Church transfer
- 2.Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church — International Theological Commission account of Eastern Catholic synodal structures and their ecclesiological setting