Reformed Evangelical Synod of America

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Why would an ecclesiastical community bearing names like reformed and evangelical seek to practice the historic episcopate? Isn’t that Roman Catholic? In a new article available on our resource page, Father Robert Lyons, a presbyter of our Synod, explores the meaning of the historic episcopate in our fellowship.

You may directly link to this resource by following this link.

Perspective on its Practice and its Implications for Today
Father Robert Lyons

The Scriptural norm for the transmission of ministerial authority is rooted in the laying on of hands by the apostles, together with prayer. Throughout history, the Church has maintained this line of tactile succession as a witness to the lawful transmission of ministerial authority through the bishops of the church (known as the historic episcopate) in ways adapted to local needs. To be valid though, the historic episcopate assumes that the lawful transmission of ministerial authority is combined with faithful transmission of the Apostolic Teaching of the New Testament. At crucial junctures in church history, the link between tactile succession and faithfulness to the Gospel has been perversely severed. In such cases, the faithful were forced, out of loyalty to Christ, to follow apostolic teaching instead of the faulty witnesses of those with a claim to being in succession from the apostles. The concept of the historic episcopate (also referred to as apostolic succession) often raises questions or concerns outside of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox Churches. Too many have seen the use of this mode of Church government as a pronouncement against the Christianity of those who do not practice it, others have used it to lord their superiority over others. Across the centuries, the historic episcopate has been administered in various ways throughout Christendom, as it is within our Synod.

We serve the God who is faithful to the thousandth generation of those who love Him and keep His commandments. As such we believe the historic episcopate to be an important witness to the faithfulness of God in establishing the reign of Jesus Christ across the nations and through the generations, filling the earth with Christ’s Glory. Because, by grace, this historic episcopate seeks to maintain the lawful transmission of ministerial authority together with the faithful transmission of Apostolic Teaching, all who assume ministerial work within this Synod shall enter into their ministry through the laying on of hands by a bishop in the historic episcopate. (Historically, diaconal consecration has been handled in various ways. While the laying on of hands is generally performed by a bishop, deacons and deaconesses in this Synod may be consecrated by presbyters with the consent of the bishop.)

Article 32: The Historic Episcopate
from The Articles of Religion
of the Reformed Evangelical Synod of America

The concept of the historic episcopate (also referred to as apostolic succession) often raises questions or concerns outside of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox Churches. Too many have seen the use of this mode of Church government as a pronouncement against the Christianity of those who do not practice it, others have used it to lord their superiority over others. Across the centuries, the historic episcopate has been administered in various ways throughout Christendom, as it is within our Synod.

The first thing we must state plainly and honestly is that no line of names – no matter how distinguished or ancient – will ensure fidelity to the Gospel. On the regular, intent, passionate study of Scripture will generate such faithfulness to the Word of God. We believe there are many very blessed, fruitful ministries which exist outside of what would be identified as the historic episcopate, and at the same time we behold with sorrow those who, while laying claim to this precious heritage, have forsaken the Gospel of Christ in its purity.

Martin Luther and his fellow reformers found themselves in a similar situation in the sixteenth century. Though an ordained presbyter of the Roman Catholic Church, and a member of the Augustinian Order, Luther was able to recognize that in spite of all the historicity of his own ecclesial communion, they had departed in many important ways from the truth. Luther, through his writing and preaching, sought a return to the Gospel message, free from later accretions. He and his followers did not seek to abandon the Roman Church – but, in the end, they found themselves abandoned by her.

In the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Phillip Melanchthon expresses (with the approval of Luther) a willingness to retain an Episcopal form of Church government:

On this matter we have given frequent testimony in the assembly to our deep desire to maintain the church polity and various ranks of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, although they were created by human authority… Thus the cruelty of the bishops is the reason for the abolition of canonical government in some places, despite our earnest desire to keep it… Furthermore, we want at this point to declare our willingness to keep the ecclesiastical and canonical polity, provided that the bishops stop raging against our churches. This willingness will be our defense, both before God and among all nations, present and future, against the charge that we have undermined the authority of the bishops.

Apology of the Augsburg Confession, XIV

Indeed, in many areas (Scandinavia and the Baltic regions) the Lutheran reformation went forward with bishops participating. The English Reformation also included bishops formerly of Roman obedience in its move forward:

It is evident unto all men diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient Authors, that from the Apostles’ time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ’s Church; Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. Which Offices were evermore had in such reverend Estimation, that no man might presume to execute any of them, except he were first called, tried, examined, and known to have such qualities as are requisite for the same; and also by publick Prayer, with Imposition of Hands, were approved and admitted thereunto by lawful Authority. And therefore, to the intent that these Orders may be continued, and reverently used and esteemed in the Church of England, no man shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, in the Church of England, or suffered to execute any of the said Functions, except he be called, tried, examined, and admitted thereunto, according to the Form hereafter following, or hath had Episcopal Consecration, or Ordination.

From the Preface to the Ordinal of the Book of Common Prayer [1662]

Likewise, the Moravian Church (which predates the Lutheran reformation by a century) has retained the historic episcopate, as have various Old and Independent Catholic bodies which have broken communion with the Roman Church.

While a wide variety of ecclesial communions maintain the historic episcopate, others do not. Those whose heritage is rooted in the Reformed and Anabaptist traditions (among others) have their own modes of Church government which, to varying degrees, have served the preservation of the Gospel and the transmission of ministerial authority.

So, one might ask, if we acknowledge that the historic episcopate is not necessary to ensure that the integrity of the Gospel is maintained, why should our Synod (or anyone else, for that matter) find it to be a matter of concern? One might point to the example of the Reformed Episcopal Church, whose very foundations had a degree of rooting in the participation of her founding bishop, George Cummins, in a Presbyterian communion service with several non-episcopally ordained clergy. After the REC’s founding, while maintaining the historic episcopate, ministers who were not episcopally ordained were accepted into communion with that body without being brought into the historic episcopate in any way (other than submission to a bishop). To many non-episcopally ordained clergy, this seems to be a most charitable way of addressing the situation of a cleric who wishes to enter into service with a community which is in an episcopal Church. This would be a simple and painless matter, if only there were not another side which, in Christian charity, must be considered before engaging in such a process.

There are those of various communions who believe that the physical, historical lineage of the apostles passing on ministerial authority to the bishops and other ministers of the Church is both deeply Scriptural and also deeply rooted in Christianity’s most ancient practices. Those holding to such beliefs will immediately call attention to Biblical precedents like Acts 1: 12-26, Acts 6: 1-6, and Acts 13: 1-3. In Second Timothy, Saint Paul gives a moving account of his purpose in the consecration of Timothy to ecclesiastical leadership:

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control… Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

2 Timothy 1: 5-7, 13-14

In this passage we see the two elements that must be present for true succession – i.e., a right and fruitful manifestation of the historic episcopate. The two elements are a direct commission from a faithful leader and a commitment to the deposit of faith found in Sacred Scripture. For many, the tactile laying on of hands is essential to this process, and its omission causes doubts about the authenticity of their ministry. This was especially noted during the early Church by leaders such as Tertullian, who lived in a time of great doctrinal upheaval. As the Gnostic heresies rose, many were confronted with trying to determine who really held valid authority to preach and administer the Sacraments. In his work The Prescription Against the Heretics, 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 [that first bishop of theirs] bishop shall be able to show for his ordainer and predecessor some one of the apostles or of apostolic men.

Prescription Against the Heretics, Chapter 32

While the historic episcopate was established to prevent doctrinal error, it has not always been successful. Many who held questionable our outright heretical views of the faith have been (and continue to hold) positions as bishops in the Church. Tragically, there are those who wished to maintain this continuity of both tactical and biblical succession, but who were prevented because of the political and ecclesial climates of their times. In such instances, they were forced to heed the following words of advice which Paul also offered to Timothy:

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

1 Timothy 6: 3-5

Individuals were forced, by conscience and a fidelity to the Word of God to go to ground outside of the bounds of the identifiable historic episcopate. This is, however, a frightening idea to many who are members of Church bodies which hold strongly to this doctrine, but who are questioning their own communion’s teachings.

This is the reason that the Reformed Evangelical Synod of America mandates the historic episcopate as a normative component of the ordination and consecration of her clergy. We stand with Luther and Melanchthon, with Cranmer and Coverdale, and with the countless heirs of both the ancient Church and the Reformation who see the value and meaning of the historic episcopate as a strong confession of the continuity of the Church, and as a visible witness that “the gates of Hades shall not prevail against [the Church]” (Matthew 16:18). We mandate the historic episcopate within our practice, not to condemn others who may practice a different form of Church government, but to open wide our own doors to those who feel that it is an essential component of true, vital Christianity.

At the same time, our Synod does not seek to belittle or insult those who have given years or decades of their lives to God’s service in denominations and communities which do not maintain a historic episcopate. To do so is to ‘box-in’ the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth. We would do a disservice to the Church and to her Lord to look upon the service of others who preach the truth as anything less than service to the Lord. This is why we affirm and celebrate the ministry of each and every minister who enters into our Synod as we greet them with a laying on of hands and prayer in the apostolic manner. We refuse to discount their previous ministry; instead, we add a new tool to their belt – the time-honored rite of the laying on of hands by a bishop who has a historic and scriptural connection to the apostles and their teachings.

Far from being a stumbling block, we believe that the Historic Episcopate – locally adapted according to the circumstances in which believers find themselves – can serve as a part of the foundation of a new Reformation; one that hearkens back to the inerrant Scriptures and the traditions of our ancient brothers and sisters as opposed to the modern, relativist mindset that is slowly killing much of our beloved Christian Church.

To view a copy of the official Episcopal Succession document of the Reformed Evangelical Synod of America, please follow this link.

The Vincentian Canon discusses what we call the Consensus Fidelium or the “Consensus of Faithful Christians”. It refers to what has been believed by the large body of Christians in all places and at all times. Defining that is not an exact science but the task has it’s benefits in my opinion.

In our era, the American Church is primarily known for it’s herd mentality and penchant for following the latest fads. To some, the word “Evangelical” means “the church of what’s happening now” – a full dose of zeitgeist covered with a thin scriptural veneer to attempt religious respectability. The emphasis, however, is on doing what we feel is right.

A body – synod or congregation – heeding the consensus fidelium will take a different tack. They will ask “what is essentially Christian?” and to derive their answer they will begin with the study of scripture but seek to check their conclusions against the conclusions of others whom the Holy Spirit has called before us to the task of discerning God’s will. In our age that’s so suspicious of the “traditions of men” (our own favorite mindless traditions excluded of course!), seeking to learn the consensus fidelium on a matter is nothing other than a form of “historical and transcultural humility”.

Thomas Oden’s Systematic Theology “Classic Christianity” is helpful in that regard. A former worshiper of every innovation however destructive offered by “progressive Christianity”, he was converted to “paleo orthodoxy” when his experiments with theology left him cold. His advice?

“What I needed to do was listen. But I could not listen because I found my modern presuppositions constantly tyrannizing my listening. I realized that I must listen intently, actively, without reservation. Listen in such a way that my whole life depended upon hearing. Listen in such a way that I could see telescopically beyond my modern myopia, to break through walls of my modern prison, and actually hear voices from the past with different assumptions entirely about the world and time and human culture. Then I began reading the decisions of the ancient Ecumenical Councils. Only then in my forties did I begin to become a theologian.”

The day for theological experimentation at the expense of human souls is over. The day for theological restatement and the reinvigoration of the life of the Church is upon us. Our text is, of course, the whole of Holy Scripture. But with a new historical humility, our pathway to the prophetic word of the hour is through the central tradition of the Church and consistent with the prophetic word before. The day for engagement in mission is upon us as well. It is here that experimentation is called for as we seize the day and live out the Word of God afresh, yet in a way consistent with the consensus fidelium. In the first century, Christians did so by rescuing infants left to die from exposure and wild animals. In this century, Christians may accomplish the same thing by embracing in any number of ways those facing unexpected pregnancies. The times have changed but the calling remains the same.

As Reformed and Evangelical people, we emerge from the Reformation and cherish its affirmation of the “five solas”. Embracing the heritage of the Reformation is not a calling distinct from pursuing the consensus fidelium. In an age when some consider anything resembling a “denominational” term passe, we embrace the name. We recognize that our fathers in the faith affirmed these “solas” precisely because they were confronted by a schismatic hegemony that had seriously compromised the testimony of the Body of Christ. How? By departing from the ancient consensus fidelium! In pursuing a faithful restatement of the Reformed, Evangelical, Protestant, and, yes, Catholic faith for today we simply live our our calling as Reformed and Evangelical people. Because our roots run deep into history and through the historic church, that means we likewise pursue the consensus fidelium. Will you join us as we do?

Dr. Martin Luther nailing his Ninety-five Theses to the door of the University Church at Wittenburg.

How can one be both Catholic and Protestant? The two camps seem to be completely opposed to one another, and yet for the better part of five hundred years, there have been those who have walked the journey of faith maintaining both a Catholic and Protestant identity. In order to engage in a fruitful dialogue on this topic, it is important to get behind the evolved meanings of both words to discover their roots.

The word Catholic is an adjective derived from the Greek καθολικός (katholikos), meaning ‘universal’. Any Church holding to the theological and moral concepts expressed in Sacred Scripture and the Nicene Creed are rightly called Catholic Churches, for they have maintained the one truth that has been handed down by Christ through the Church. Such a definition of the word Catholic is defended by Vincent of Lerins in a work known as the Commonitoria.

The word Protestant is an adjective derived from the Latin protestari meaning ‘publicly declare’. The use of the term dates to the Diet of Speyer, held in 1529. Since that time, the term Protestant has been used in many different senses, most often as a general term describing those, rooted in Western Christianity, who believe that the true Christian Church can exist independently of the Roman Catholic Church.

For a long time, many of us outside of the Roman Church have struggled with the term ‘Protestant’, finding it to be an insult or an affront; but the meaning of the word is a noble one. Protestants are those who make a public declaration of their faith against all adversaries, heresies, and wiles of Satan. When one comes to a proper understanding of the term Protestant, it is not a term of shame, but a badge of honor.

At the same time, many Protestants shirk to be called Catholics, fearing that they, somehow, will be associated with the Church of Rome; yet history teaches us that the ancient Church was not initially centered on Rome, and her influence can be seen to have changed over the centuries through a collusion of civil and religious authority in the Roman Empire and, after the Empire’s fall, through mandated expressions of civil religion that spread throughout Europe in the Dark Ages and into Medieval times. To be a Catholic, one need not subscribe to the superstitions and false teachings of these eras; one need hold fast to the Word, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

A true Catholic will have no problem with the ‘five solas’ of the Protestant Reformation, properly understood, for they will require the Catholic to simply affirm what Scripture clearly teaches and what the Church Fathers reliably taught.

At the same time, a true Protestant will rejoice in the nature of the Church itself – a body we are promised will never die or pass away, but one which shall be perfected and brought into the eternal presence of God at the last great day. The idea that the Church and faithful preaching has been absent from the earth for even a day since her birth on the first Pentecost Day must be rejected as flying in the face of the very words of Christ. While we can always seek to reform and refine the Church to be more purely what Christ intended, we must never confess that the Church has disappeared.

Certainly there remain matters that are unresolved between the Catholic and Protestant mindsets. Indeed, even within the Protestant realm there are many varied views on the how’s and why’s of the faith – but following Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is and must be the central focus of the life of any individual, community, or ecclesial assembly that professes to be Christian.

To be both Catholic and Protestant may be an uneasy coexistence for many, but when faced with a right understanding of what it means to be both, their coexistence becomes a joy – for it is always a joyful thing to stand up for the faith once for all delivered unto the saints.

Father Robert Lyons is a presbyter of the Reformed Evangelical Synod of America. He serves as the Manager of Chaplaincy Services at Wishard Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis, and is leading the effort to plant a new congregation in Central Indiana. He and his family reside in Bargersville, Indiana.

What is the RESA?
The Reformed Evangelical Synod of America is an ecclesiastical body dedicated to proclaiming the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ through Word, Sacrament, and Service. Members of the RESA have gathered together from Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, and Eastern traditions of the Church in a spirit of unity and cooperation to make known far and wide the saving power of Christ. While maintaining the Doctrines of Grace preached in the ancient Church and recovered during the time of the Reformation, our Synod also retains the Historic Episcopate, an ancient and venerable form of Church government, handed down from the primitive Church.

Why the RESA?
The Reformed Evangelical Synod of America is a home for those dedicated to the sovereignty of God’s grace and the primacy of his Word. We stand firm in our conviction that the Holy Scriptures are the infallible Word of God, while at the same time encouraging study of the Church Fathers – both ancient and reformed. For us the Fathers never overshadow Scripture, which we believe contains all things necessary to salvation; their role is to illumine Scripture for us with their words, and to keep us in a historical continuity of belief that, sadly, is lacking in much of Christendom today.

Why the Historic Episcopate?
The Reformed Evangelical Synod of America has adopted the historic episcopate as its means of ecclesiastical government because of its ancient roots and its ability to connect believers from various streams in Christ’s holy Church.

How does the RESA worship?
The Reformed Evangelical Synod of America worships according to the form contained in its approved version of The Book of Common Prayer, which brings together elements from our many root traditions in a harmonious whole. The weekly preaching of the Word and sharing of Communion in the celebration of the Divine Service is at the heart of our worship, as is regular immersion in Sacred Scripture through daily prayer in the Church and the home.

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