In Bruges, theologians, historians, canonists and members of several Christian denominations discussed the problems of synodality within various traditions and tried to assess the significance of the synodal experience in various denominations. The interdisciplinary and interconfessional approach helped draw a rich and diversified picture, which makes it possible to look concurrently at the churches' past and present. By paying attention to the central and peripheral aspects, the dimension of theological reflection invariably intersected the dimension of normative production and the historical reconstruction of a few meaningful test cases