Word: synods
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...time before priests will be allowed to marry if they wish to. Last fall, 1,700 of the nation's 5,000 diocesan priests signed a petition urging the Dutch hierarchy to consider ending compulsory celibacy. The question is likely to be debated next summer at a nationwide synod, where clergy and laymen will join bishops in deciding the future of the Dutch church. The bishops, moreover, are notably sympathetic to the problems of the 200 priests who have resigned from office in the past three years, many of them to marry. With Vatican permission, a handful...
...Germany, Scandinavia and the U.S., where it is the third largest Protestant segment (after the Baptists and the Methodists). Three branches of the faith account for most of the nation's 10 million Lutherans: the Lutheran Church in America, the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod...
Nothing for Granted. Many churches in recent years have indeed launched their own surveys of the problem. The United Church of Christ will hear the findings of a two-year study at its General Synod in June, and the Episcopal Church last year launched a major investigation of its seminary education. Feilding notes that a few seminaries already "are taking bold and effective steps" to reform. For example, Chicago Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with the United Church, has thrown out its first-year classes in favor of intensive courses "to introduce the student to the concrete study...
...deeper meaning of the Washington meeting was the democratization of the hierarchy. In the past, the annual meetings of the hierarchy were largely dominated by the senior U.S. prelates and automatically chaired by New York's Francis Cardinal Spellman. In setting up a formal hierarchical synod under the title of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the prelates also made provisions for electing its officers. Chosen on the third ballot as first president of the conference was the Most Rev. John Francis Dearden, 59, the progressive Archbishop of Detroit...
...Protestants frequently referred to her as a "Roman Catholic" with a strong emphasis on the Roman. For the benefit of Bettie Phillips, Mary explained why the chief priest of a parish is called the pastor; Bettie in turn explained to the Catholics how Presbyterians use the terms vestry and synod and why their principal statement of faith is called the Westminster Confession...