Apostolic Succession in the Roman Catholic and Lutheran Churches I ran across an interesting website: https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/. It is actually a database of all Roman Catholic bishops, past and present, with their histories. What is really fascinating is that their chain...
gottesdienst.podbean.com
"... their records of consecrations don’t even go back as far as the Reformation." I imagine the same issue is found in the Eastern Orthodox as well.
Yours in the Lord,
jm
From my analysis of this subject, both Orthodox (Eastern and Oriental) and Lutheran, for example, Church of Sweden, lines of apostolic succession are well documented, and this represents a point of potential harmony and reconciliation.
In the case of the Roman Catholic Church a few things create confusion, such as the tendency of Popes to unilaterally consecrate bishops, and to control the translation of bishops between dioceses, and also the confusion introduced by the unusual institution of the College of Cardinals.
Now historically, not all bishops in one of the ancient churches were necessarily members of the Holy Synod, and it is not extremely unusual for the Roman Church to have a subset of senior bishops with greater authority, but there are several aspects to the college of Cardinals which make it somewhat unique and unusual, for example, the idea that each Cardinal is a either a titular bishop of one of the Suburbicarian Sees surrounding Rome, such as Ostia, or the titular priest of one of the ancient churches within Rome, or one of seven titular deacons. These titles are held in addition to other titles, so for example, the Archbishop of a major city, or the primate of one of the sui juris Eastern Catholic Churches, such as the Maronite Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, might be a Cardinal as well.
Additionally, Popes can appoint members to the College of Cardinals in secret, an appointment known only to them, however, when the Pope dies these cardinals naturally lose their status and do not participate in the Conclave.
It is due to features like these that the Roman Catholic apostolic succession can become convoluted, but they do have it.
The other major denominations I am aware of that have apostolic succession, according to the Augustinian notion of the concept, include, among others, the Scandinavian Lutheran churches, the Church of England and most other Anglican churches, the Oriental Orthodox, the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East, the Old Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox (including the canonical churches as well as most of the Old Calendarists and, in a somewhat confused way, most of the Old Believers except obviously for those Old Believers who, in an extreme interpretation of the liturgical reforms of Patriarch Nikon and the more strict model of Apostolic Succession of St. Cyprian of Carthage, which differs from that of St. Augustine in that it becomes invalid in the case of schismatic or doctrinally heterodox bishops, came to believe that all the bishops in the world had become extinct, and thus the priestless Old Believers, after the repose of their last parish priests, simply stopped celebrating sacraments that require a presbyter or bishop, which means only Baptism and Holy Matrimony (among most; some actually stopped being married for a lack of clergy). Their parishes still featured the iconostasis, but the icons were placed on a wall with no Holy Doors or Deacons’ Doors to the altar beyond, as one would find in an Eastern Orthodox or Ukrainian Lutheran or Byzantine Catholic or Coptic Orthodox church*.
Curiously the United Methodists also have apostolic succession albeit in an irregular way, but share the view of the LCMS that it is not required. I believe the Moravian bishops also have Apostolic succession, but I am not sure.
Also, on that note, I can’t recall if the Ukrainian Lutherans have bishops or apostolic succession. Unlike the Baltic Lutherans, some of whom if I recall are in communion, or altar and pulpit fellowship, with the LCC/LCMS, the Ukrainians use a modified form of the Byzantine Rite liturgy, from which the Lutheran church obtained the Litany of Peace, which can be found in the 2006
Lutheran Service Book.
My own view on the subject is influenced by both the LCMS position and that of Martin Luther, and that of St. Cyprian of Carthage, in that I regard doctrinal orthodoxy and apostolic continuity in terms of doctrine as being of greater importance than direct apostolic succession, particularly via the Augustinian model, but at the same time I regard the latter as nice to have. But I think the Lutherans were correct in the emergency faced by Martin Luther, in that if a scenario occurred in which the entire hierarchy became corrupted, with all bishops adhering to the traditional faith being killed, in the event of such a disaster, the Church would survive on the basis of the preservation of those things Luther regarded as important, which I would call Apostolic Continuity. And I think Martin Luther made an important point concerning this.
*Lutherans managed to preserve, and in the 19th century in Denmark and Sweden, in many instances iconographic features such as rood screens and chancel screens, which amount to the Western equivalents of the Eastern iconostasis or the Armenian
bema** that were removed in Catholic churches and by crypto-Calvinist iconoclasts. Curiously the Franciscans and Dominicans were opposed to rood screens and caused most to be removed.
** This differs from the Jewish or Assyrian
Bema, in that in Armenian churches the altar itself is elevated and there is a curtain which can conceal or reveal it, but underneath that curtain, between it and the floor of the nave, there is a wall on which icons are painted. At the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, which is jointly used by the Greeks, Armenians and Roman Catholics, with the Syriac Orthodox and Coptic Orthodox using the immediately adjacent St. Mary’s, the altar follows the Armenian design, but is two tiered, so under the main altar is, instead of an iconographic bema, a grotto over the exact spot where these churches believe that St. Mary gave birth to our Lord.
