Word: synods
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Before the 240 members of the Evangelical synod, Dibelius explained that the controversial Biblical passage in Romans 13* had been his guide in these matters. He recalled the insults he had suffered from the Nazis and continued in a voice shaking with emotion: "All that was torture for me. But I had to tell myself that Christians in other times have experienced similar torture and have not tossed Romans 13 overboard. The turning point came for me when the business of euthanasia for so-called worthless life and the gassing of Jews became apparent...
...Jews which long preceded the gas chambers, were not reassured by this explanation. But when the 80-year-old bishop announced that he would resign all his ecclesiastical offices next year (when his term ends as one of the six presidents of the World Council of Churches), the synod was willing to let bygones be bygones. As Bishop Dibelius put it: "These utterances date from a time now 30 years past and can be explained as part of completely different conditions. Since then I have always, under jeopardy of my own freedom and life, emphatically stood up for Jewish fellow...
...Roman Catholic diocese of Rome had its first synod in almost 500 years last week, and Pope John XXIII explained the occasion as "a meeting of a bishop with his priests to study the problems of the spiritual life of the faithful, to give or restore vigor to ecclesiastical laws so as to eliminate abuses, to promote Christian life, foster divine worship and religious practices...
According to the code of canon law which became effective in 1918, all dioceses are required to hold a synod every ten years, but few of them do-Rome least of all, because Popes are usually too busy with other matters and because it is generally assumed that the Holy City has least need of spiritual jacking up. In calling the fourth synod in Rome's history,* Pope John obviously disagreed with that assumption...
...Constitutions. A synod is not like a council-its articles are not even discussed, much less debated. The 770 articles presented to 1,200-odd clergymen in six days of sessions were the result of 165 committee meetings. Working under the Pope's close supervision during the past year, the committee examined thousands of suggestions from parish priests, high church officials and leading laymen. The articles themselves will not be published for weeks, but enough is known about them to form a broad picture of Rome's new diocesan constitutions, which Roman Catholic bishops everywhere are urged...