ON THE ESSENTIAL CONCEPT OF APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION (Art. 7)

1. Our intent is to acknowledge and commit ourselves fully to the concept of the Apostolic Succession, as it was accepted by the Apostolic Tradition and practiced by the undivided Church during the first millennium.
2. For this reason, we believe that the Local Church, as the People of God,[1] that is structured in synodical and participatory form,[2] with the diversity of gifts and ministries, among which there is the ordained ministry, comprising deacons, priests and the bishop, is decisive for understanding the full implications, the exercise and the transmission of the apostolic succession.
3. The ordained ministry can never be understood as something that is above the community, but rather as a gift that, granted by the Holy Spirit,[3] is discerned by the community[4] and is at its service and for its edification.[5]
4. From this it follows that the ministerial capacity that comes from ordination as deacon, priest or bishop cannot be exercised as a personal power or privilege in an autonomous or, to any extent whatsoever, arbitrary way; but that the sacramental validity of the ministry is subject to its being practiced within an ecclesiastical context that reflects everything to which the New Testament witnesses and was actualized in the early Church.
5. In the event of transmitting the Apostolic Succession in an Episcopal Consecration, it is indispensable:
   1. For the candidate to have been elected synodically by the People of God and the Presbytery that comprise a legitimately constituted and recognized Local Church, for the purposes of presiding over it, supporting it in its life of faith, and linking it in communion with other Local Churches.
   2. That the Primate Bishop, along with the other bishops that comprise the Ecclesiastical Province in which the Local Church is located, ratify the election that has been carried out lawfully by the Local Church.
   3. That the College of Bishops that ratified the election proceeds to the Consecration of the bishop, consecrating him according to the ritual legitimately approved by this Ecclesiastical Province.
   4. That in the ritual of consecration all that is associated with the laying on of hands, with the consecrating prayers and with other elements believed to be essential for the Catholic tradition, Orthodox as well as Latin, be maintained in their entirety.
   5. WCCAC does not recognize the sacramental validity of an Episcopal Consecration that is performed outside the ecclesiastical context in its entirety as defined in the four preceding items.