Apostolic Successions

The Apostolic Succession is the means by which sacramental validity is assured in all Catholic churches:  it means that a valid bishop is one who is consecrated by the laying on of hands in an unbroken tactile line that stretches back to the twelve Apostles and to Jesus Christ Himself. The Apostolic Succession is as important spiritually as it is historically.

Tertullian writes, "Let them produce the original records of their churches; let them unfold the roll of their bishops, running down in due succession from the beginning in such a manner that [name of first bishop of theirs] bishop shall be able to show for his ordainer and predecessor some one of the apostles or of apostolic men." For the Old Catholic Apostolic Church, these original records reside with the historic Churches of the East and and West and with the Roman Catholic Church, since our descent from those churches occurs as recently as the twentieth-century. 

The value of the union of the different strands of the Apostolic Succession as they have been transmitted to various churches is considerable in ecumenical terms, since it transcends differences in theology and belief, and acts to unite the Church as the Body of Christ.

Our Apostolic Succession Document is here.