Consistory

Consistory. Collegiate institution of the church hierarchy. In the Catholic church there is the papal consistory, which consists of cardinals and pronounces on important matters of faith, rite, and church organization. There are also eparchial consistories, which help bishops govern their eparchies and consist of canons, advisers, archivists, supervisors, and chancellors. Every Ukrainian Catholic eparchy has a consistory. In the Orthodox church the bishops' consistory is an advisory and auxiliary body of the church administration under an archbishop. Consistories were introduced in the Russian Orthodox church in 1744 and were known as spiritual consistories. The principal officer in them was the consistory secretary, who was responsible to the head procurator of the synod. In the Ukrainian Orthodox church there were consistories at the eparchial level, and after the Second World War such consistories were established in the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church. In some eparchies abroad (in Canada, for example) they have a decisive voice in the administration of the eparchy. Each consistory has its own court, which looks into affairs involving priests and sometimes into lay affairs such as marriages.