Apostolic succession

Apostolic succession is the claimed continuity of church authority from the apostles through successive appointed leaders, especially bishops. Churches differ on how this continuity is transmitted and what authority it guarantees.

Episcopal polity: A church governance system in which bishops exercise authority over clergy and congregations. It supplies the institutional structure through which many churches trace succession.
Apostolic succession in Catholicism: The Catholic teaching that bishops succeed the apostles through episcopal consecration within the Church’s communion. Catholicism connects episcopal succession with sacramental ministry and communion with the pope.
Ignatius of Antioch: An early second-century Christian bishop and writer whose letters stress the authority of bishops. His letters provide early evidence for linking bishops with church unity and authority.
Apostolicae curae: A 1896 papal bull declaring Anglican ordinations invalid according to the Roman Catholic Church. Its ruling made the recognition of Anglican episcopal succession a defining dispute.
Ordination: A rite that formally admits a person to a ministry or clerical office. Ordination is the usual act by which authority passes from one generation of leaders to another.
Apostolic succession in Eastern Orthodoxy: The Eastern Orthodox understanding of bishops as successors to the apostles within the Church’s sacramental and conciliar life. Orthodox teaching emphasizes succession within the shared faith and communion of the Church.
Irenaeus of Lyon: A second-century Christian theologian who argued against heresy by appealing to public apostolic teaching and church leaders. He used lists of bishops to argue that churches preserved apostolic teaching.
Baptismal recognition: The acceptance by one Christian community that baptisms performed by another community are valid. Shared baptism can persist even where churches disagree about ordained succession.
Apostolicity: The quality of being rooted in the apostles’ teaching, mission, or institutional continuity. Churches invoke apostolicity to explain what succession is meant to preserve.
Apostolic succession in Anglicanism: The Anglican claim that its bishops continue the historic episcopate inherited from the early Church. Anglican accounts connect historical episcopal continuity with distinctive disputes over recognition.

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