Continuing Church - Apostolic Succession

Apostolic Succession

Continuing Churches with a Catholic or Anglican tradition have sometimes found it difficult to manage the initial separation in that there are a limited number of Anglicans or Roman Catholics who have passed on valid Apostolic succession. Prior to the 1970s, ‘Continuing Churches’ often approached English speaking Old Catholics to obtain Apostolic Succession and to place themselves within the historic episcopacy. This means that although such churches may have continued the beliefs and practices of Anglicanism, they have Apostolic Succession through the Old Catholic bishops Arnold Harris Matthew or Rudolphe De Landas Berghes. Most Continuing Anglican churches, however, descend from the "Denver Consecrations" of 1978 in which the consecrators were bishops in good standing in the Anglican Communion.