Provincial synods

It is when we look at their respective functions that the original distinction between convocations and provincial synods becomes most visible. Provincial synods are a feature of the universal church, whereas convocations have arisen out of the particular relationship between church and state in England. The functions of a provincial synod are primarily ‘spiritual', that is to say, they concern the doctrine and discipline of the church as an institution in its own right.

Under the heading of doctrine, the main responsibility of a provincial synod is to detect heresy and condemn it. As long as the Church of England was in communion with Rome, it had no right to make positive pronouncements in doctrinal matters, and to this day much of the church's official teaching derives from sources beyond itself- the Bible in the first instance, and the canons of the ancient ecumenical councils. When the break with Rome occurred, definition of doctrine became essential, and this was a major preoccupation in 1536 and again in 1563. In 1536 the convocation of Canterbury produced the so-called ‘ten articles', which it later followed up with an explanatory manual, popularly known as the Bishops’ Book. In 1563 it produced the thirty-nine articles, which were essentially a revision of forty-two articles prepared by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1553 and given the royal assent on 19 June that year.

Since 1563 the English convocations have not attempted to define the church's doctrine in this way, though they still retain the right to do so if necessary. The Irish convocation, however, composed its own articles in 1615 and acknowledged the English articles in 1634. The practical effect of this was that the thirty-nine articles superseded the Irish ones of 1615, though the latter were never formally abolished. The Church of Ireland has never made any further doctrinal statement, and if it had done so before disestablishment in 1871, it would probably have called its communion with the Church of England into question. Today, its general synod has full authority to determine the church's doctrine, but as in England, no statement comparable to the articles of 1563 (or 1615 for that matter) has as yet been produced.