Apostolic Succession

APOSTOLIC Succession is the tracing of a direct line of Apostolic lineage of orthodox doctrine from the Apostles to the current episcopacy of the Church. It is through Apostolic succession that the Church of Christ, which is His Body on earth, is the spiritual successor to the original body of believers in Christ that was composed of the Apostles. This succession manifests itself through the unbroken succession of its Bishops back to the Apostles.

Apostolic Succession is an indispensable factor in preserving unity in the Church. Those in that suc­cession are accountable to it, and are responsible to ensure that all teaching and practice in the Church is in keeping with her Apostolic foundations. Mere personal conviction that one’s teaching is correct can never be considered adequate proof of legitimacy, nor does it establish validity of Holy Orders and, therefore, the Sacraments. Today, critics of Apostolic Succession are those who stand outside that historic succession and seek an identity with the early Church only. The burgeoning number of denom­inations in the world can be accounted for in large measure because of a rejection of Apostolic Succes­sion.

Apostolic Succession, however, is not merely the ability to evidence an unbroken line of bishops, rather, it is absolutely dependent upon the handing-on, and the guardianship of, true Apostolic teaching. The very word for bishop in the original Greek means an overseer and a guardian (of the faith). Any deviation from Apostolic teaching immediately breaks and invalidates the Apostolic guarantee, that is, the legitimate line of succession is broken. The Celtic Church places more emphasis on this tenet, that true Apostolic Succession is the faithful handing-on of true Apostolic Teaching, than that of being able to name all of is past bishops, however, for the benefit of any detractors or critics, we can indeed name every bishop in an unbroken line of succession.

Our Apostolic lines of  succession include : The Celtic Church, The Coptic Orthodox Church, The Chaldean Catholic Church, The Syrian-Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, The Russian Orthodox Church, The Melkite-Greek Patriarchate of Antioch and all East, The Old Catholic Church, Duarte Costa Succession: Roman Catholic.