thumb|Degree being awarded at a University of Toronto convocation
A convocation (from Latin convocare 'to call/come together', a rough calque of Greek ἐκκλησία ekklēsia) is a group of people formally assembled for a specific purpose, typically ecclesiastical or academic.
In academic use, it can be a ceremonial assembly of the university for graduation or commencement, or of the institution's alumni. Some institutions hold a convocation at the start of the academic year to welcome incoming students.
Ecclesiastical convocations
A synodical assembly of a church is at times called "Convocation".
Convocations of Canterbury and York
right|150px|thumb|A cadet of the [[Royal Military College of Canada plays bagpipes in Currie Hall during the college's fall 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. With the recognition of York as a separate province in 733, this synod was divided into two. and by 1530 the Archbishop of York rarely attended sessions and the custom that York waited to see what Canterbury had decided and either accepted or rejected it was well established. The Convocation of York was, in practice, taking second place to that of Canterbury 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. Formal sessions at the start of each parliament continued but no real business was discussed until after the Revolution of 1688 which brought William III and Mary II to the throne, when attempts to include some of the Protestant dissenters met such resistance in the lower house that the government abandoned them and the Convocations resumed their purely formal meetings. Business was resumed in 1701 and by the time Queen Anne died in 1714 draft canons and forms of service had been drawn up for royal assent. and many churchmen began to argue that neither Parliament nor the bishops in the House of Lords expressed the mind of the Church as a whole In 1847 the routine session at the beginning of a new Parliament coincided with the polemical nomination of Dr Hampden to the see of Hereford. The formal address to the Queen was debated for six hours and an amendment carried praying the Crown to revive the active powers of convocation. The opposition was formidable: half the clergy and most of the laity rejected the idea, many politicians were against it and the two archbishops—John Bird Sumner and Thomas Musgrave—had no desire to revive Convocation. or, more generally, to any formal assembly of the university (similar to congregation in some British universities). At Harvard University and Columbia University it is the name used for the matriculation ceremony that formally welcomes new students at the start of the academic year.
At some universities in the UK and other countries, convocation refers to the body of the members of the university that meets to make official decisions. (The equivalent body at Cambridge is the senate.)
At Durham University, convocation was established as the assembly of members of the university by the university's fundamental statue in 1835. Women were admitted to convocation from 1913. Durham's degrees were awarded at meetings of convocation until 1938, when this power was transferred to the senate and awards were instead made at congregations of the university. it consists of the chancellor, the vice-chancellor and warden, the deputy vice-chancellor and provost, the pro-vice-chancellors, graduates of the university who have registered as members of convocation, and other officers of the university appointed by the university's council. It appoints the chancellor of the university, most recently Fiona Hill on 28 November 2022, and receives the annual report of the university.
In the University of London, convocation, between its establishment in 1858 and its abolition in 2003, consisted of the university's graduates who were involved in the university's governance.
In New Zealand, universities have courts of convocation by which all graduates elect representatives to the institutions' governing bodies.
Other uses
- Collective noun for eagles.
- A formal or ceremonial meeting (noun), or assembly.
- A meeting of companions of a Holy Royal Arch chapter.