The Polish National Catholic Church is an independent splinter church which severed its ties to the Roman Catholic Church in 1904 after adopting its own laws and regulations. The Church has proclaimed itself "a democratic church in which the synods are the highest legislative authority." In turn the synod is defined as "a gathering of clerical and lay representatives of Parishes for the purpose of discussing and resolving important Church matters for the greater Glory of God and the use of the people constituting the Polish National Catholic Church."The present volume contains the minutes of the first eleven general synods of this unique Catholic religious organization which, since its first synod rejected Latin, in favor of Polish, in the celebration of the liturgy and, perhaps most significantly, abandoned priestly celibacy.