The episcopate is either the status of a
bishop or the collective body of all bishops of a church. In the
Roman Catholic,
Anglican (including the
Episcopal Church in the United States of America),
Eastern Orthodox,
Eastern Rite Catholic,
Oriental Orthodox, and
Old-Catholic churches, in the
Assyrian Church of the East, in the
Lutheran churches of the
Porvoo Communion, and
Independent Catholic Churches and the Unitas Fratrum or
Moravian Church, it is held that only a person in a line of succession of bishops dating back to the
Apostles can be a Christian bishop, and only such a person can validly ordain Christian clergy. The succession must be transmitted from each bishop to a successor by the rite of
Holy Orders. Bishops in such a succession compose the historical episcopate. This is also called the
apostolic succession, but that term is also used in a variety of other ways. Bishops of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are also ordained through the laying on of hands of bishops in the apostolic succession.
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