In the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

and other

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

churches, a deanery synod is a

synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word '' synod'' comes from the Ancient Greek () ; the term is analogous with the Latin word . Originally, ...

convened by the ''

Rural Dean In the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion as well as some Lutheran denominations, a rural dean is a member of clergy who presides over a "rural deanery" (often referred to as a deanery); "ruridecanal" is the corresponding adjective ...

'' (or ''Area Dean'') and/or the Joint Lay Chair of the Deanery Synod, who is elected by the elected lay members. The Synodical Government Measure 1969 makes it a statutory body.Diocese of London website, Deanery Synods page
/ref> A Deanery is a group of parishes within an Archdeaconry (an Archdeaconry forms part of the larger Diocese); members will elect the Diocesan representatives to the Houses of Clergy and Laity at the General Synod. All Licensed Clergy in the Deanery area are automatically members of the Deanery Synod. Deanery Synods also have Lay Members who are elected every three years.Barston Church website, Ways To Help page
/ref> The Synod acts as an intermediary between the

parochial church council A parochial church council (PCC) is the executive committee of a Church of England parish and consists of clergy and churchwardens of the parish, together with representatives of the laity. It has its origins in the vestry committee, which looke ...

s of each parish in its deanery and the synod of the diocese as a whole. In England its lay members also elect the deanery's lay representatives to its diocese's synod (every three years by either plurality or

Single Transferable Vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

) and its diocese's members of the House of Laity in the General Synod of the Church of England, every five years by a system of STV.

References

Church of England ecclesiastical polity {{Anglican-stub