Still a Bishop

Excerpt from

Still a Bishop by the Reverend Canon John Heidt, D.Phil., (Oxon)

. . . Every bishop's certificate of consecration begins with the awesome words: "To all the faithful in Christ Jesus throughout the world, greetings," and then proclaims to the world that a duly ordained priest has been ordained and consecrated "into the sacred office of a bishop in the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of God," according to the prescribed order of the Episcopal Church and in conformity with its canons.

They are ordained in conformity with the canons of the Episcopal Church, but the authenticity of their orders does not depend upon those canons. The divisions within catholic Christendom must not trap us into believing that the Episcopal Church has absolute and universal authority either by constituting the whole church of God, or, by being a totally self-governing denomination. Our bishops ordain other bishops according to the rules of the Episcopal Church but they do so as apostolic representatives of the whole catholic church throughout the world. And those they ordain, though specifically authorized to function in the Episcopal Church, are likewise ordained bishops of that same catholic church. . . .

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