Editing Apostolic succession (section)

== Definitions ==
[[Michael Ramsey]], an English Anglican bishop and the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] (1961–1974), described three meanings of "apostolic succession":
# One bishop succeeding another in the same see meant that there was a continuity of teaching: "while the Church as a whole is the vessel into which the truth is poured, the Bishops are an important organ in carrying out this task".
# The bishops were also successors of the apostles in that "the {{em|functions}} they performed of preaching, governing and ordaining were the same as the Apostles had performed".
# It is also used to signify that "grace is transmitted from the Apostles by each generation of bishops [[laying of hands|through the imposition of hands]]".
He adds that this last has been controversial in that it has been claimed that this aspect of the doctrine is not found before the time of [[Augustine of Hippo]], while others allege that it is implicit in the Church of the second and third centuries.<ref>Ramsey, Arthur Michael. ''The Gospel and the Catholic Church'' (translated from the Spanish edition published in the Dominican Republic: 1964, pp.134ff)</ref>

In its 1982 statement on [[Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry]], the [[Faith and Order Commission]] of the [[World Council of Churches]] stated that "the primary manifestation of apostolic succession is to be found in the apostolic tradition of the Church as a whole. ... Under the particular historical circumstances of the growing Church in the early centuries, the succession of bishops became one of the ways, together with the transmission of the Gospel and the life of the community, in which the apostolic tradition of the Church was expressed."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-commissions/faith-and-order-commission/i-unity-the-church-and-its-mission/baptism-eucharist-and-ministry-faith-and-order-paper-no-111-the-lima-text|title=Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (Faith and Order Paper no. 111, the 'Lima Text')|publisher=World Council of Churches|access-date=23 January 2012|archive-date=4 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404233443/http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/commissions/faith-and-order/i-unity-the-church-and-its-mission/baptism-eucharist-and-ministry-faith-and-order-paper-no-111-the-lima-text|url-status=dead}}</ref> It spoke of episcopal succession as something that churches that do not have bishops can see "as a sign, though not a guarantee, of the continuity and unity of the Church" and that all churches can see "as a sign of the apostolicity of the life of the whole church".<ref>''Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry'', 38</ref>

The Porvoo Common Statement (1996), agreed to by the Anglican churches of the British Isles and most of the Lutheran churches of Scandinavia and the Baltic, echoed the Munich (1982) and Finland (1988) statements of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church<ref name=Finland1988/> by stating that "the continuity signified in the consecration of a bishop to episcopal ministry cannot be divorced from the continuity of life and witness of the diocese to which he is called".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.porvoochurches.org/whatis/output03.php |title=The Porvoo Communion |access-date=2012-09-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305095653/http://www.porvoochurches.org/whatis/output03.php |archive-date=5 March 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.porvoochurches.org/whatis/resources-0201-english.php |title=The Porvoo Communion |access-date=2012-09-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305094958/http://www.porvoochurches.org/whatis/resources-0201-english.php |archive-date=5 March 2012 }}, sec. 49</ref>

Some Anglicans, in addition to other Protestants, held that apostolic succession "may also be understood as a continuity in doctrinal teaching from the time of the apostles to the present".<ref name=Armentrout>Donald S. Armentrout, Robert Boak Slocum (1999). [https://books.google.com/books?id=y_RpbmWNfHcC&pg=PA25 ''An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church'']. Church Publishing. {{ISBN|9780898692112}}. p. 25</ref> For example, the British [[Methodism|Methodist]] Conference locates the "true continuity" with the Church of past ages in "the continuity of Christian experience, the fellowship in the gift of the one Spirit; in the continuity in the allegiance to one Lord, the continued proclamation of the message; the continued acceptance of the mission".<ref name="autogenerated229">Jay, Eric G. ''The Church: its changing image through twenty centuries''. John Knox Press: 1980, p.228f</ref>

The teaching of the [[Second Vatican Council]] on apostolic succession<ref>essentially ''[[Lumen gentium]]'', 19–21</ref> has been summed up as follows:

{{Blockquote|Bishops have succeeded the apostles, not only because they come after them, but also because they have inherited apostolic power. ... "To fulfil this apostolic mission, Christ ... promised the Holy Spirit to the apostles&;...". [These were] "enriched by Christ the Lord with a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit ... This spiritual gift has been transmitted down to us by episcopal consecration".<ref>{{cite book|last = Wells|first= David F.|title = Revolution in Rome|publisher = InterVarsity Press|date= 1972 |page = 40 |isbn = 9780877849100}}</ref>}}