Local councils handle the everyday life of the Church. They’re where bishops gather to make decisions about their diocese or region, ordaining priests, addressing pastoral problems, setting policy, disciplining clergy when needed. These synods (another word for councils) are how the Orthodox Church actually governs itself day to day.
You’ve probably heard about the seven Ecumenical Councils. Those are the big ones, the ones that defined core doctrines like the Trinity and the two natures of Christ. But the Church didn’t just meet seven times and call it good. Bishops have been gathering in local and regional councils since the beginning, and they still do. The Antiochian Archdiocese has its own synod. So does every autocephalous (self-governing) Orthodox Church. Your bishop meets regularly with other bishops to make decisions that affect your parish, even if you never hear about it.
How Local Councils Work
When we say the Church is conciliar, we mean it actually functions through councils. A bishop doesn’t rule his diocese like a lone ranger. He meets with other bishops in synod. They pray, they deliberate, they decide things together. That’s not just procedure, it’s theology. The Church believes the Holy Spirit guides these gatherings when bishops act in unity and continuity with the faith handed down from the apostles.
Local councils deal with practical stuff. Should we open a new mission parish in Lumberton? How do we handle a priest who’s causing problems? What’s our policy on second marriages? These aren’t abstract questions. They affect real people, and local synods are where bishops work them out.
But local councils also participate in doctrinal discernment. When an Ecumenical Council defines something, local churches have to receive it, apply it, teach it. That reception happens through local councils. They’re not creating new doctrine, the faith was delivered once for all to the saints, as St. Jude says. But they’re living it out in their time and place.
Authority and Limits
Here’s where it gets important. A local council has real authority within its jurisdiction. If your diocesan synod makes a decision about parish governance or clergy discipline, that decision binds you. You can’t just ignore it because you don’t like it.
But a local council can’t contradict an Ecumenical Council. It can’t decide, for example, that Christ has only one nature instead of two. The dogmatic definitions of the Ecumenical Councils are universal and binding across all of Orthodoxy. A local synod that contradicts them puts itself outside the Orthodox faith.
Think of it this way. The Ecumenical Councils set the boundaries of the faith, the non-negotiables. Local councils work within those boundaries to govern, teach, and guide the Church in their region. They’ve got plenty of room to operate, but they can’t redraw the map.
This is different from how a lot of Baptists around here think about church governance. In Baptist polity, each congregation is autonomous. The local church answers to nobody. In Catholicism, you’ve got the Pope at the top making binding decisions for everyone. Orthodoxy is neither. We’re conciliar all the way up and all the way down. Bishops govern together in synod, not alone. And every synod, local, regional, or ecumenical, operates within the Tradition.
Primacy and Synods
Every council has a primate, someone who presides. In a diocesan synod, that’s usually the diocesan bishop or metropolitan. In the Antiochian Archdiocese, it’s the Metropolitan. He calls the synod, he guides the discussion, he’s first among equals.
But he’s not a pope. He doesn’t have unilateral authority to overrule the synod. The decisions are made together. That’s the Orthodox way, primacy within synodality, not instead of it.
You’ll see this at your parish too, if you stick around. St. Michael has a parish council. It’s not a synod of bishops, obviously, but it reflects the same conciliar principle. The priest presides, but the council deliberates and decides together on practical matters. That’s how the Church works at every level.
Why This Matters for You
If you’re coming from a background where one pastor makes all the decisions, or where every church is its own island, this might feel strange. But it’s actually freeing. The Church isn’t built on one person’s charisma or one congregation’s interpretation of Scripture. It’s built on bishops in communion, councils in continuity, the faith received and handed on.
When you’re chrismated at St. Michael, you’re not just joining this parish. You’re entering a Church that stretches back to the apostles and extends across the world, held together by councils and communion. Your bishop meets with other bishops. They make decisions together. They’re accountable to each other and to the faith once delivered. That’s not bureaucracy. That’s the Body of Christ functioning as Christ intended.
Metropolitan Philip used to say that Orthodoxy is lived, not just believed. Local councils are where that life happens in concrete terms, where bishops gather, pray, decide, and guide the Church through whatever challenges the times bring. Even here in Southeast Texas, far from Constantinople or Antioch, we’re part of that conciliar life. Your priest answers to a bishop. Your bishop meets in synod. The synod guards the faith and governs the Church. And all of it, when it’s working right, is the Holy Spirit keeping Christ’s promise that the gates of hell won’t prevail against His Church.
