Apostolic succession

Episcopal consecration of Deodatus; Claude Bassot [fr] (1580–1630)

Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is considered by some Christian denominations to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bishops.^[1] Those of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Scandinavian Lutheran, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East, Hussite, Moravian and Old Catholic traditions maintain that "a bishop cannot have regular or valid orders unless he has been consecrated in this apostolic succession".^[2]^[3]^[4] These traditions do not always consider the episcopal consecrations of all of the other traditions as valid.^[5]

This series was seen originally as that of the bishops of a particular see founded by one or more of the apostles. According to historian Justo L. González, apostolic succession is generally understood today as meaning a series of bishops, regardless of see, each consecrated by other bishops, themselves consecrated similarly in a succession going back to the apostles.^[6] According to the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, "apostolic succession" means more than a mere transmission of powers. It is succession in a church which witnesses to the apostolic faith, in communion with the other churches, witnesses of the same apostolic faith. The "see (cathedra) plays an important role in inserting the bishop into the heart of ecclesial apostolicity", but once ordained, the bishop becomes in his church the guarantor of apostolicity and becomes a successor of the apostles.^[7]^[8]

Those who hold for the importance of apostolic succession via episcopal laying on of hands appeal to the New Testament which, they say, implies a personal apostolic succession (from Paul to Timothy and Titus, for example). They appeal as well to other documents of the early Church, especially the Epistle of Clement.^[9] In this context, Clement explicitly states that the apostles appointed bishops as successors and directed that these bishops should in turn appoint their own successors; given this, such leaders of the Church were not to be removed without cause and not in this way. Further, proponents of the necessity of the personal apostolic succession of bishops within the Church point to the universal practice of the undivided early Church (up to AD 431), before it was divided into the Church of the East, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

Some Christians, including certain nonconformist Protestants, deny the need for this type of continuity,^[10]^[11]^[12] and the historical claims involved have been severely questioned by them; Anglican academic Eric G. Jay comments that the account given of the emergence of the episcopate in Chapter III of the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium (1964) "is very sketchy, and many ambiguities in the early history of the Christian ministry are passed over".^[13]

^ Cross, Frank Leslie; Livingstone, Elizabeth A. (2005). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3. Archived from the original on 16 April 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2024.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^ Guidry, Christopher R.; Crossing, Peter F. (1 January 2001). World Christian Trends, AD 30 – AD 2200: Interpreting the Annual Christian Megacensus. William Carey Library. p. 307. ISBN 9780878086085. A number of large episcopal churches (e.g. United Methodist Church, USA) have maintained a succession over 200 years but are not concerned to claim that the succession goes back in unbroken line to the time of the first Apostles. Very many other major episcopal churches, such as the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Old Catholic, Anglican, and Scandinavian Lutheran, make this claim and contend that a bishop cannot have regular or valid orders unless he has been consecrated in this apostolic succession.
^ Cite error: The named reference Konečný1995 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Goeckel, Robert F. (3 August 2018). Soviet Religious Policy in Estonia and Latvia: Playing Harmony in the Singing Revolution. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-03612-4. Among Lutherans there are also different positions: Scandinavian Lutheran churches claim apostolic succession, but German Lutheran churches (many formed from Prussian-mandated unions with Reformed Churches which reject this belief) do not affirm this element of doctrine. The Latvian and Estonian Lutheran churches had exhanged mutual recognition of this succession with the Anglican Church before WWII. They should be considered among the Scandinavian group rather than the German group, explaining theological motivation for consecration by a sitting bishop (Melton, Encyclopedia, 91).
^ Apostolic succession. Encyclopædia Britannica. 4 January 2007.
^ Cite error: The named reference ETT was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "II,4", The Mystery of the Church and of the Eucharist in the Light of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity, 1982
^ "Apostolic succession", The Sacrament of Order in the Sacramental Structure of the Church with Particular Reference to the Importance of Apostolic Succession for the Santification and Unity of the People of God, 1988
^ Adam, Karl. The Spirit of Catholicism. Doubleday, 1957 p. 20
^ Webb, Jim (11 October 2005). Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. Crown. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-7679-2295-1.
^ Cross, F. L.; Livingstone, E. A., eds. (2005). "apostolic succession". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3.
^ "Apostolic Succession". The Columbia Encyclopedia (sixth ed.). Columbia University Press. 2004. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
^ Jay, Eric G. The Church: its changing image through twenty centuries. John Knox Press: 1980, p.316f

[1] Cross, Frank Leslie; Livingstone, Elizabeth A. (2005). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3. Archived from the original on 16 April 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2024.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

[GuidryCrossing2001-2] Guidry, Christopher R.; Crossing, Peter F. (1 January 2001). World Christian Trends, AD 30 – AD 2200: Interpreting the Annual Christian Megacensus. William Carey Library. p. 307. ISBN 9780878086085. A number of large episcopal churches (e.g. United Methodist Church, USA) have maintained a succession over 200 years but are not concerned to claim that the succession goes back in unbroken line to the time of the first Apostles. Very many other major episcopal churches, such as the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Old Catholic, Anglican, and Scandinavian Lutheran, make this claim and contend that a bishop cannot have regular or valid orders unless he has been consecrated in this apostolic succession.

[Konečný1995-3] Cite error: The named reference Konečný1995 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Goeckel2018-4] Goeckel, Robert F. (3 August 2018). Soviet Religious Policy in Estonia and Latvia: Playing Harmony in the Singing Revolution. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-03612-4. Among Lutherans there are also different positions: Scandinavian Lutheran churches claim apostolic succession, but German Lutheran churches (many formed from Prussian-mandated unions with Reformed Churches which reject this belief) do not affirm this element of doctrine. The Latvian and Estonian Lutheran churches had exhanged mutual recognition of this succession with the Anglican Church before WWII. They should be considered among the Scandinavian group rather than the German group, explaining theological motivation for consecration by a sitting bishop (Melton, Encyclopedia, 91).

[5] Apostolic succession. Encyclopædia Britannica. 4 January 2007.

[ETT-6] Cite error: The named reference ETT was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[7] "II,4", The Mystery of the Church and of the Eucharist in the Light of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity, 1982

[Finland1988-8] "Apostolic succession", The Sacrament of Order in the Sacramental Structure of the Church with Particular Reference to the Importance of Apostolic Succession for the Santification and Unity of the People of God, 1988

[9] Adam, Karl. The Spirit of Catholicism. Doubleday, 1957 p. 20

[Webb2005-10] Webb, Jim (11 October 2005). Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. Crown. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-7679-2295-1.

[ODCC-11] Cross, F. L.; Livingstone, E. A., eds. (2005). "apostolic succession". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3.

[12] "Apostolic Succession". The Columbia Encyclopedia (sixth ed.). Columbia University Press. 2004. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2017.

[13] Jay, Eric G. The Church: its changing image through twenty centuries. John Knox Press: 1980, p.316f

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