Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held 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. This series was seen originally as that of the bishops of a particular see founded by one or more of the apostles, but it 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.
Apostolic succession "may also be understood as a continuity in doctrinal teaching from the time of the apostles to the present"
Read more about Apostolic Succession: Meanings, In The Early Fathers, As Transmission of Grace, Basis, Apostolicity As Doctrinal and Related Continuity, Churches Claiming Apostolic Succession, Apostolic Founders, Protestant Denominations That Reject Apostolic Succession
Famous quotes containing the word succession:
“What is this world of ours? A complex entity subject to sudden changes which all indicate a tendency to destruction; a swift succession of beings which follow one another, assert themselves and disappear; a fleeting symmetry; a momentary order.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)