LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 401

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ADDITIONAL THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS—OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT 401

39. Thus the primary manifestation of apostolic succession is to
be found in the apostolic tradition of the Church as a whole. The
succession is an expression of the permanence and, therefore, of the
continuity of Christ’s own mission in which the Church participates.

40. Within the apostolicity of the whole Church is an apostolic
succession of the ministry which serves and is a focus of the conti-
nuity of the Church in its life in Christ and its faithfulness to the
words and acts of Jesus transmitted by the apostles. The ordained
ministry has a particular responsibility for witnessing to this tradi-
tion and for proclaiming it afresh with authority in every generation.

B. Apostolic Ministry

41. To nourish the Church, God has given the apostolic ministry,
instituted by our Lord and transmitted through the apostles. The
chief responsibility of the ordained ministry is to assemble and build
up the body of Christ by proclaiming and teaching the Word of God,
by celebrating the sacraments and by guiding the life of the com-
munity in its worship, its mission and its caring ministry. The setting
aside of a person to a lifelong ordained office by prayer, invocation
of the Holy Spirit and the laying on of hands reminds the Church
that it receives its mission from Christ himself and expresses the
Church’s firm intention to live in fidelity to and gratitude for that
commission and gift. The different tasks of the one ministry find
expression in its structuring. The threefold ministry of bishops,
priests and deacons became the general pattern of ordained ministry
in the early Church, though subsequently it underwent considerable
change in its practical exercise and is still developing today.

42. The diversity of God’s gifts requires their co-ordination so
that they enrich the whole Church and its unity. This diversity and
the multiplicity of tasks involved in serving it calls for a ministry of
co-ordination. This is the ministry of oversight, episcope, a caring
for the life of a whole community, a pastoring of the pastors and a
true feeding of Christ’s flock, in accordance with Christ’s com-
mand across the ages and in unity with Christians in other places.
Episcope (oversight) is a requirement of the whole Church and its
faithful exercise in the light of the Gospel is of fundamental im-
portance to its life.

43. Oversight of the Church and its mission is the particular re-
sponsibility of the bishop. The bishop’s office is one of service and
communication within the community of believers and, together
with the whole community, to the world. Bishops preach the word,
preside at the sacraments, and administer discipline in such a way as
to be representative pastoral ministers of oversight, continuity and
unity in the Church. They have pastoral oversight of the area to
which they are called. They serve the apostolicity, catholicity and
unity of the Church’s teaching, worship and sacramental life. They
have responsibility for leadership in the Church’s mission. None of
these tasks should be carried out in isolation from the whole Church.

44. The ministry of oversight is exercised personally, collegially
and communally. It is personal because the presence of Christ
among his people can most effectively be pointed to by the person
ordained to proclaim the gospel and call the community to serve
the Lord in unity of life and witness. It is collegial, first because
the bishop gathers together those who are ordained to share in the
tasks of ministry and to represent the concerns of the community;
secondly, because through the collegiality of bishops the Christian
community in local areas is related to the wider Church, and the
universa] Church to that community. It is communal, because the
exercise of ordained ministry is rooted in the life of the commu-
nity and requires the community’s effective participation in the dis-
covery of God’s will and the guidance of the Spirit. In most of our
churches today this takes synodical form. Bishops, together with
other ministers and the whole community, are responsible for the
orderly transfer of ministerial authority in the Church.

45. The personal, collegial and communal dimensions of over-
sight find expression at the local, regional and universal levels of
the Church’s life.

C. The Episcopal Office in the Service of the Apostolic Succession

46. The ultimate ground of the fidelity of the Church, in conti-
nuity with the apostles, is the promise of the Lord and the presence
of the Holy Spirit at work in the whole Church. The continuity of
the ministry of oversight is to be understood within the continuity
of the apostolic life and mission of the whole Church. Apostolic
succession in the episcopal office is a visible and personal way of
focusing the apostolicity of the whole Church.

47. Continuity in apostolic succession is signified in the ordi-
nation or consecration of a bishop. In this act the people of God
gather to affirm the choice of and pray for the chosen candidate.
At the laying on of hands by the ordaining bishop and other repre-
sentatives with prayer, the whole Church calls upon God in confi-
dence of His promise to pour out the Holy Spirit on his covenant
people (Is. 11: 1-3, cf. Veni Creator Spiritus). The biblical act of
laying on of hands is rich in significance. It may mean (among
other things) identification, commissioning or welcome. It is used
in a variety of contexts: confirmation, reconciliation, healing and
ordination. On the one hand, by the laying on of hands with prayer
a gift of grace already given by God is recognized and confirmed;
on the other hand it is perfected for service. The precise signifi-
cance or intention of the laying on of hands as a sign is determined
by the prayer or declaration which accompanies it. In the case of
the episcopate, to ordain by prayer and the laying on of hands is to
do what the apostles did, and the Church through the ages.

48. In the consecration of a bishop the sign is effective in four
ways: first it bears witness to the Church’s trust in God's faithful-
ness to his people and in the promised presence of Christ with his
Church, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to the end of time;
secondly, it expresses the Church’s intention to be faithful to God’s
initiative and gift, by living in the continuity of the apostolic faith
and tradition; thirdly, the participation of a group of bishops in the
laying on of hands signifies their and their churches’ acceptance of
the new bishop and so of the catholicity of the churches: fourthly, it
transmits ministerial office and its authority in accordance with
God’s will and institution. Thus in the act of consecration a bishop
receives the sign of divine approval and a permanent commission
to lead his particular church in the common faith and apostolic life
of all the churches.

49. The continuity signified in the consecration of a bishop to
episcopal ministry cannot be divorced from the continuity of life
and witness of the diocese to which he is called. In the particular
circumstances of our churches, the continuity represented by the oc-
cupation of the historic sees is more than personal. The care to
maintain a diocesan and parochial pattern of pastoral life and min-
istry reflects an intention of the churches to continue to exercise the
apostolic ministry of word and sacrament of the universal Church.

D. The Historic Episcopal Succession as Sign

50. The whole Church is a sign of the Kingdom of God; the act
of ordination is a sign of God’s faithfulness to his Church, espe-
cially in relation to the oversight of its mission. To ordain a bishop
in historic succession (that is, in intended continuity from the apos-
tles themselves) is also a sign. In so doing the Church communi-
cates its care for continuity in the whole of its life and mission, and
reinforces its determination to manifest the permanent characteris-
tics of the Church of the apostles. To make the meaning of the sign
fully intelligible it is necessary to include in the service of ordina-
tion a public declaration of the faith of the Church and an exposi-
tion of the ministry to which the new bishop is called. In this way
the sign of historic episcopal succession is placed clearly in its full
context of the continuity of proclamation of the gospel of Christ
and the mission of his Church.

2001 Convention Workbook