A convocation meaning to call/come together, is a group of people formally assembled for a special purpose, mostly ecclesiastical or academic.
A synodical assembly of a church is at times called a Convocation
The Convocations of Canterbury and York were the synodical assemblies of the two Provinces of the Church of England until the Church Assembly was established in 1920. Their origins date back to the end of the seventh century when Theodore of Tarsus (Archbishop of Canterbury, 668-690) reorganized the structures of the English Church and established a national synod of bishops.
In 1225, representatives of the cathedral and monastic chapters were included for the first time and in 1285 the membership of the Convocation of Canterbury assumed the basic form which it retained till 1921: Bishops, Abbots (till the 1530s and the Dissolution of the Monasteries), Deans, and Archdeacons, plus one representative of each cathedral chapter and two for the clergy from each diocese. By the fifteenth century, each convocation was divided into an upper house (the Bishops) and a lower house (the remaining members). In 1921, the number of proctors (elected representatives) of the diocesan clergy was increased to make them a majority in the lower houses.
The legislative powers of the convocations varied considerably over the centuries. Until 1664, they (not Parliament) determined the taxes to be paid by the clergy, but their powers in general were severely curtailed by Henry VIII in 1532/4; and from the time of the Reformation till 1965 they were summoned and dissolved at the same time as Parliament. Under Henry VIII and his successor Edward VI between 1534 and 1553 the Convocations were used as a source of clerical opinion but ecclesiastical legislation was secured by statute from Parliament. Later between 1559 and 1641, Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I gave the force of law to decisions of Convocation without recourse to Parliament by letters patent under the great seal notably the Thirty-Nine Articles (1571) and the 141 Canons of 1603.
The Convocations have always been exclusively clerical assemblies. However, in 1885 the Convocations agreed to the establishment of parallel Houses of Laity elected by the lay members of the diocesan conferences. These were not part of Convocation; they had no constitutional status and were merely advisory.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, both Convocations together with their respective houses of laity began to meet as a Representative Council which however had no legal authority or position. This was superseded in 1920 by the Church Assembly which was given the right to propose measures to Parliament by the “Enabling Act of 1919”.
The Convocations still exist and their members constitute the two clerical houses of the General Synod but, apart from some residual and formal responsibilities, all legal authority is now vested in the Synod which was established in 1970.
