Reformed Evangelical Synod of America

Posts Tagged ‘deacon’

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.

Januarius, the bishop of Naples, died in 305 during the Diocletian persecution. He was imprisoned while visiting incarcerated deacons at the sulphur mines of Puteoli. After many tortures, including being thrown to lions in the town’s Amphitheater, he was beheaded at Solfatara, along with his companions, including the deacon Festus, the lector Sossus, and his friends Proculus, Acuitus, and Euticius.

COLLECT
Almighty and everlasting God, you planted in the hearts of Januarius and his companions a burden for those imprisoned on account of your Son’s holy name. Grant us a deep awareness of the suffering of our brothers and sisters who are in chains on account of their faith, and, if it be your blessed will, lead us to engage in works which may encourage them in their suffering – even when such works may require us to sacrifice our freedom or our lives. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.