Apostolic succession is the unbroken line of bishops stretching from the Apostles to today, passed on through the laying on of hands at ordination. It’s how the Church has preserved the apostolic faith and the grace to celebrate the mysteries for two thousand years.
Here’s how it works. When a man is ordained a bishop, other bishops gather around him and lay their hands on his head, praying for the Holy Spirit to descend. Those bishops were ordained the same way by bishops before them, who were ordained by bishops before them, all the way back to the Apostles themselves. It’s not just a ceremony. Something real happens, the grace and authority of apostolic ministry passes from one generation to the next.
This matters because Christianity isn’t a book club where everyone reads the Bible and decides what it means. Christ founded a Church. He chose twelve Apostles and gave them authority to teach, to baptize, to celebrate the Eucharist, to forgive sins. And they passed that authority on. St. Paul laid hands on Timothy. Timothy ordained others. Those men ordained others. The chain never broke.
Without apostolic succession, you’re left guessing. Who has the authority to baptize? Who can celebrate the Eucharist? Who decides what Scripture means when Christians disagree? In most Protestant churches, the answer is basically “whoever the congregation hires” or “whoever feels called.” That’s not what the early Church looked like. Read Ignatius of Antioch’s letters from around 107 AD, he’s already insisting that nothing happens in the Church without the bishop, that the bishop stands in the place of the Apostles.
We’re not being snobby about this. It’s just what we believe Christ established. The bishops are the successors of the Apostles, and through them the whole Church stays connected to the apostolic faith. When your priest celebrates the Liturgy at St. Michael’s, he does so because Bishop NICHOLAS ordained him, and Bishop NICHOLAS stands in a line going back through centuries of bishops to the Apostles themselves. That’s not a small thing.
The connection to the sacraments is direct. A priest can’t just declare himself a priest and start baptizing people or consecrating the Eucharist. He needs to be ordained by a bishop who has apostolic succession. That ordination isn’t a formality, it transmits the grace and authority to perform the mysteries. When you receive Communion, you’re receiving the Body and Blood of Christ from a Church that has been celebrating this mystery in an unbroken line since the upper room.
But apostolic succession isn’t just about having the right paperwork or tracing your bishop back to the right guy. It’s also about preserving the apostolic faith. A bishop who teaches heresy breaks communion with the Church even if his ordination was technically valid. Succession means both the historic transmission through laying on of hands and faithfulness to what the Apostles taught. You can’t have one without the other.
This is where we differ from our Catholic friends in Beaumont. They’d say apostolic succession requires communion with the Pope. We say it requires communion with the apostolic faith as preserved by the whole Church through the Ecumenical Councils. The Patriarch of Constantinople doesn’t have the same role as the Pope in Catholic theology. Our bishops are successors of the Apostles because they were ordained by other bishops in apostolic succession and because they guard the faith once delivered to the saints.
For someone coming from a Baptist or non-denominational background, this can feel strange. You’re used to churches where the pastor is hired by the congregation and authority flows from the bottom up, or where it’s just you and your Bible and the Holy Spirit. We’re saying that’s not enough. Christ didn’t leave us a book and wish us luck. He left us a Church with apostles who ordained bishops who ordained more bishops, and that structure matters. It’s how the faith stays the faith instead of splintering into ten thousand opinions.
When you stand in St. Michael’s and Father celebrates the Liturgy, you’re standing in something ancient and unbroken. The prayers he prays are the prayers Christians have prayed for centuries. The Eucharist he consecrates is the same mystery the Apostles celebrated. And his authority to do these things flows through an unbroken line of bishops going back to men who knew Christ face to face. That’s apostolic succession, and that’s why it matters.
