Council saying evil is peculiar? (5)
I believe the answer is:
synod
'council' is the definition.
(I know that Synod is a type of council)
'saying evil is peculiar?' is the wordplay.
'saying' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'evil' becomes 'sin' (synonyms).
'is peculiar?' becomes 'od' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'sin' is a homophone of 'syn'.
'syn'+'od'='SYNOD'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for synod that I've seen before include "Council of clergy to discuss policy" , "Ecclesiastical assembly" , "Assembly of the clergy" , "Ecclesiastical gathering" , "Council of bishops" .)