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Document Details : Title: The Anglican Position on Apostolic Succession in the Porvoo Common Statement Author(s): TANNER, Mary Journal: Louvain Studies Volume: 21 Issue: 2 Date: summer 1996 Pages: 114-125 DOI: 10.2143/LS.21.2.583427 Abstract : The question of apostolic continuity and apostolic succession has been a concern of Anglicans since the time of the Reformation as Anglicans have sought to understand their own identity often in discussions, not always irenic, with other traditions. Continuity was understood as multi-faceted: continuity in the faith grounded in the Scriptures; continuity with the Fathers and the Councils of the early Church; continuity in the worship and sacramental life of the Church; continuity in the ministry, ordered in the threefold pattern and continuity in the episcopate and in the collegial gatherings of the bishops – all of this expressed in the continuing life and witness of the faithful people in the parishes. Living in this continuity was what determined Anglican self-understanding rather than adherence to any confessional documents. There was discontinuity too: most obviously and sadly in the break with the papacy. Anglicans understood themselves to be part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church in a particular place, living in dynamic continuity with apostolic teaching, order mission. |
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