Apostolic Succession. Which denominations have it?

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TheMortenBay

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I had a discussion about Apostolic Succession today, and it got me thinking. Who aside from the Catholic and Orthodox Church actually have valid succession - and a bonus question: is valid succession the same as having validly ordained priests/ bishops. Because I know the Anglican Church doesn’t have the latter, but could they still have valid Apostolic Succession?
 
  1. Rome and all Churches in full communion with Rome.
  2. The Orthodox (and Eastern Churches which have maintained a valid ordination rite).
There are other arguments, but they are specious.
 
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Apostolic Succession requires valid ordination for it to be passed on. The Anglican church broke Apostolic Succession when they stopped validly ordaining. This means that some early Anglican priests and bishops certainly had it, since they had been validly ordained before the break (or at least before the ordination rite was changed to make it invalid). But after they stopped having valid ordinations, Apostolic Succession could no longer be handed down to the newly ordained.

You may be able to find individuals who had valid Catholic or Orthodox ordinations and then “left” for Anglicanism (or any other Christian denomination), but they would be the rare exceptions.
 
Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches both have apostolic succession (these are two distinct communions, the latter being non-Chalcedonian). The Assyrian Church is the East also has undisputed apostolic succession.
 
Are Coptics included in Orthodox?

Copts also have apostolic succession.
 
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The following 4 all have Apostolic Succession
  • Catholic Church (all rites and Churches in full communion with the Pope)
  • Eastern Orthodox Churches
  • Oriental Orthodox Churches
  • Church of the East
The following theoretically has Apostolic Succession where they have not introduced female ordination
  • Old Catholic Church (and splinter groups from the Old Catholics and Catholic churches)
 
I don’t think that’s even close to the Catholic definition of Apostolic Succession.
Even if you’re right, who in your opinion holds that succession? Because that was my question.
 
Hodos said:
Those who hold to the gospel as proclaimed by the apostles and normed by the scriptures they handed down to us.
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That is not apostolic succession. However, I do realize that many Protestants view it this way.
 
The Anglican church does not have valid apostolic succession. Christ directly gave us the papacy and the Anglican church chose to ignore it. The Orthodox and Eastern Catholics have valid apostolic succession.
 
awesomecatholic said:
Yes, but Anglicans do not have valid ordinations.
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Some do, as even Catholics would have to agree, which is why some converting Anglican priests receive conditional ordinations. But that gets more into the weeds than we need to here. The historic Anglican Church, as best I can tell, generally did not have valid priests for quite a stretch.
 
Hodos said:
Actually it would be if you believe that the bishops always faithfully transmitted the deposit of faith. However, we can look at history and see that this was not always the case which is why we have the scriptures to norm the gospel that we proclaim
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I acknowledge that many Protestants believe this, but this argument has no merit from a Catholic/Orthodox point of view.

For Catholics and the Orthodox, apostolic sucession is passed from bishop to bishop through the authority of the church Christ founded. It is not reliant on a Sola Scriptura litmus test.

This is Catholic Answers and you are posting outside of the non-Catholic forum. It would be much appreciated if you noted somewhere your religious affiliation.
 
In the halls of Lambeth Palace, where the Archbishop of Canterbury lives, there are portraits of an unbroken succession of Archbishops from St Augustine to Justin Welby. (is he the current one?) Some Anglicans consider this Apostolic Succession. Others do not care.

Catholics, following the teaching of Leo XIII, do not believe that this succession of archbishops is a succesion from the Apostles. That is, an unbroken line of bishops is no longer the definition of Apostolic Succession. Now it has to be defined in a somewhat elusive manner, as succession in fidelity to something that cannot be defined very well.

Some Lutherans also claim Apostolic Succession. Scandinavian Lutherans have an unbroken line of bishops. (Though Rome denies it) other Lutherans believe priests have the fullness of Orders as bishops do, so the succesion of ordained Lutherans is an Apostolic Succession. This is true, for them, only if the Gospel is preached and sacraments are administered properly.

Catholic teaching says these bishops are not bishops, these pastors are not priests. Not everyone agrees.
 
The person asking the question is asking for the Catholic teaching on apostolic succession.

You persist in posting Protestant teachings on here without identifying them as Protestant. Last I looked you also didn’t state your religious affiliation on your profile.

As usual, by doing this you are creating confusion, propagating misinformation and derailing threads.
 
The Coptic Orthodox Church is part of the Oriental Orthodox (Non-Chalcedonian) communion of churches. They do have valid apostolic succession. Other members include the Ethiopian, Eritrean, Armenian, Syriac, and Indian Orthodox Churches.
 
You are off topic for the thread and you do not identify yourself as a Protestant when you do this. I’ve seen you do the same thing on at least three threads.
 
twf said:
The Coptic Orthodox Church is part of the Oriental Orthodox (Non-Chalcedonian) communion of churches. They do have valid apostolic succession. Other members include the Ethiopian, Eritrean, Armenian, Syriac, and Indian Orthodox Churches.
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Just curious, I am unfamiliar on this topic. Are these Eastern Church branches in communion with Rome? I’m not really up on Eastern Orthodox relations with Rome.
 
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