That there was no break in the actual tactile succession of Bishops in the Church of England and the Episcopal Church of Scotland is an historical fact. Every Anglican Bishop since the break with Rome has been consecrated by no less than three Bishops, and the records of these consecrations have been carefully preserved. Of that historical fact there is no doubt. However, the question that had led to the decree of Pope Leo XIII condemning Anglican Orders in his encyclical letter Apostolicae Curae was not whether there was an actual tactile succession of Bishops within the Church of England from the Bishops consecrated before the breach with the Papacy, but whether those Bishops consecrated after the breach had actually been consecrated with the proper intention necessary to be consecrated true Bishops of the Catholic Church. Since the intention is expressed by the form used with the matter in the act of consecrating itself, if there was an insufficiency of proper intention then the consecration itself would be invalid.

Even though most Anglican and Episcopalian clergy had no real doubts about the validity of their orders, nevertheless they understood that the doubt cast upon the Anglican ministry would have serious repercussions in regard to any ecumenical relations with the Roman Catholic Church.

The basis of the condemnation of the orders of the Anglican Church was that there was an apparent insufficiency of proper intention expressed in the forms of the Ordinal of King Edward VI; and that, because of this insufficiency, Anglican orders were invalid. And even though it was argued that this insufficiency was remedied in the Prayer Book of King Charles II in 1662, nevertheless Pope Leo XIII asserted that, with the passing of a century of the use of the Edwardine Ordinal, the Catholic episcopate had lapsed; and that even with a corrected ritual there were still no Catholic Bishops left to confer valid orders.

While this condemnation of Anglican Orders had no real immediate effect within the Anglican Communion, it did, however, have a real effect on how the Anglican and Episcopal Churches were viewed by Roman Catholic Christians. And, with the expansion of American interests in Cuba in the years before the First World War, and the desire of the Episcopal Church to install a missionary bishop at Havana, the need to have orders recognised by the Roman Catholic Church was seen as essential.

Therefore, having the words of Apostolicae Curae in mind, the Episcopal Church asked an Old Catholic Bishop, Rudolph Francis Edward St Patrick Alphonsus Ghislain de Gramont Hamilton de Lorraine-Brabant, Prince de Landas Berghes et de Rache, Duc de St Winock, to assist at the consecration of Hiram Richard Hulse as the Episcopal Missionary Bishop for Cuba at New York City on the 12^th January 1915. In this way, there could be no doubt about the apostolic succession of Bishop Hulse or the validity of his orders from the Roman Catholic point of view.

Bishop De Landas Berghes had been consecrated as the Old Catholic Missionary Bishop for Scotland by Arnold Harris Mathew on the 29^th June 1913. Bishop Mathew had himself been consecrated as the regionary Old Catholic Bishop for Great Britain on the 28^th April 1908 by the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht, Gerardus Gul. However, Bishop De Landas Berghes was a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire resident in Great Britain; and, with the outbreak of hostilities with Austria-Hungary in 1914, he became an enemy alien, and was liable to incarceration for the duration of the War.

In order to spare Bishop De Landas Berghes this indignity, and as a special favour to him since he had served the British Army with some distinction before he entered the sacred ministry, the British Government arranged to have him go to America which, until 1917, was one of the neutral powers. While in America, Bishop De Landas Berghes was licenced to minister in the Episcopal Church. However, towards the end of his life, Bishop De Landas Berghes was reconciled to the Holy See, and he entered a Roman Catholic monastery at Villanova, Pennsylvania, where he lived until his death in 1920. When he died, Bishop De Landas Berghes was buried with full episcopal honours by the Roman Catholic Church.

The Church of England maintained at the time of the Reformation that the sole essential matter required for ordinations was the "laying on of hands with prayer" after the example of the holy Apostles. This position was also upheld and confirmed by Pope Pius XII in the Apostolic Constitution, Sacramentum Ordinis, of the 30^th November 1947; and since then this has been considered the sole essential matter required for ordinations in the Roman Catholic Church.

Also upheld by the Church of Rome was the ancient tradition that at least three Bishops were required to consecrate a Bishop. This tradition was confirmed and ordered to be observed universally by the Council of Nicaea in 325, and this custom has been carefully observed in the Church of England since the Reformation. In this way, if one of the lines of succession were invalid, the other two lines would supply the necessary validity. Thus every Bishop who joins in the laying on of hands is a co-consecrator who passes on his own line of succession to the Bishop he assists in consecrating.

It was for this reason that the Episcopal Church asked Bishop De Landas Berghes to assist in the consecration of their Missionary Bishop for Cuba.

In his encyclical letter Apostolicae Curae, the Pope had condemned Anglican Orders on the basis of an apparent lack of proper intention expressed in the forms of the Edwardine Ordinal in the Ordering of Priests and the Consecrating of Bishops. Since the intention of the Church is expressed in its forms, that is to say, in the words spoken which accompany the ministration of the required matter or outward sign of any Sacrament, it is necessary that the forms used in the conferring of a Sacrament express a sufficiency of intention for its validity to be ensured.

The Roman Catholic Church maintained that the forms set forth by the Church of England for the Ordering of Priests and the Consecrating of Bishops in the Ordinal set forth during the reign of King Edward VI did not specify adequately enough the intention of the Church of England to ordain Catholic Priests or to consecrate Catholic Bishops; and that any ministers ordained or consecrated according to the Edwardine Ordinal were invalidly ordained and consecrated, and that their orders were "absolutely null and entirely void". And, as this was the Ordinal used in England from the time of King Edward VI to the reign of King Charles II, the Pope therefore declared that all Anglican ordinations and consecrations since that time were also "absolutely null and entirely void".

However, at the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660, the established Church of England was also restored; and it was decided by the Bishops of the established Church of England that a full and careful revision of the Book of Common Prayer was needed, and that this general revision would include a revision of the Ordinal of King Edward VI. This was done, not in deference to any Roman claims, but to make it plain to the Puritans that the orders of Priest and Bishop were two separate and distinct orders of ministry. And in so doing, any objections that had been made by Roman Catholics that there was an insufficiency of intention in the forms of the Ordinal of the English Church were also thereby addressed and corrected in the revision of the Book of Common Prayer.

In the revised Book of Common Prayer of 1662, the form set forth by the Bishops of the Church of England to accompany the laying on of hands in the Ordering of Priests was altered to read : "Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained. And be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of God, and of His holy Sacraments; In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."

Likewise, in the revised Book of Common Prayer of 1662, the form set forth by the Bishops to accompany the matter of the laying on of hands in the Consecrating of Bishops was altered to read : "Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Bishop in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands; In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. And remember that thou stir up the grace of God which is given thee by this imposition of our hands : for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and soberness."

And, in order to allay any further doubts that might have arisen in regard to the intention of the Church of England, it was reaffirmed in the Preface to the Ordinal of the Book of Common Prayer of 1662 that it was "evident unto all men reading holy Scriptures and ancient Authors, that from the Apostles’ time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ’s Church : Bishops, Priests, and Deacons" and that it was the intention of the Church of England that "these Orders may be continued, and reverently used and esteemed".

Furthermore, the very fact that Bishop De Landas Berghes was asked officially to assist in the consecration of Bishop Hulse demonstrated that it was the intention of the Episcopal Church to consecrate Bishops according to Catholic tradition.

Thus, in the forms of the revised Ordinal of the Book of Common Prayer of 1662, and with the intention of the Church of England explicitly declared in the Preface to the Ordinal, any problems that there may have been in regard to any sufficiency of form were thereby resolved and corrected. These forms set forth in 1662 for the ordering of Priests and the consecrating of Bishops have been used universally in the Church of England and the Episcopal Church of Scotland, and were also set forth in the Ordinal of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America used at the consecration of Bishop Hulse in 1915.

This is important for the Christian Episcopal Church of Canada and in the United States of America because it is through Bishop Hulse that their orders are derived.

The first Primate of the Christian Episcopal Church was Archibald Donald Davies who, in 1970, had been consecrated the Fourth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. Fifteen Bishops of the Episcopal Church assisted at the consecration of Bishop Davies, with John Elleridge Hines as one of the principal consecrators. Bishop Hines had himself been consecrated the Fifth Bishop of Texas in 1945, and was later elected the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. One of the principal consecrators of Bishop Hines had been Karl Block who had been consecrated the Fourth Bishop of California in 1938, having Bishop Hulse as one of his consecrators.

When the Christian Episcopal Church in the United States of America withdrew from the Episcopal Church in 1992, Bishop Davies had been its duly elected Diocesan Bishop and was therefore elected its First Presiding Bishop. And, at the same time, Bishop Davies was also elected Archbishop and Primate of the Christian Episcopal Church of Canada, having been its duly elected Diocesan Bishop. Every Bishop in the two Christian Episcopal Churches has had Archbishop Davies as his principal consecrator, and therefore can claim to have received valid episcopal orders since their Apostolic Succession derives not only from the Bishops of the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church, but also from the Roman Catholic Church through the ancient Roman Catholic See of Utrecht.

This, however, is not the only source of the Apostolic Succession and of valid episcopal orders in the Christian Episcopal Church which would be regarded as such by the Roman Catholic Church.

As stated before, according to the ancient tradition of the Catholic Church and the decree of the Council of Nicaea, three Bishops are required to consecrate another Bishop. Therefore, when Archbishop Davies and his Clergy and people were forced by the General Convention to withdraw from the Episcopal Church in 1992, and there being no other Bishops at the time prepared to assist them, and knowing that without other Bishops to assist him the Apostolic Succession within his jurisdiction would lapse without him, Archbishop Davies asked for assistance from the Bishops of the Anglican Rite Jurisdiction of the Americas of the Philippine Independent Catholic Church to assist him in the consecration of Bishops for the Christian Episcopal Church.

The Philippine Independent Catholic Church had emerged out of the nationalist independence movement of the Philippines as they broke their colonial ties with Spain. During the first years of Philippine independence, a nationalist Catholic Church was formed which was independent of the Roman Catholic Church. For many nationalists in the Philippines at the time of independence, the Roman Catholic Church had come to symbolise Spanish colonial rule, and they wanted for their people a nationalist Philippine Church that was truly Catholic but fully independent and self-governing.

At the time of the formation of the Philippine Independent Catholic Church there were no Bishops in their Church able to provide episcopal oversight. However, when the Philippines had come under American governance following the Spanish-American War, there came also with the American presence the presence of the Episcopal Church.

During this time, the leaders of the Philippine Independent Catholic Church approached the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and formally requested that American Episcopal Bishops consecrate Bishops for the new independent national Catholic Church of the Philippines. Their request was duly granted; and, on the 7^th April 1948, three Episcopal Bishops, Norman Binstead, Robert Wilner, and Harry Kennedy, consecrated Isabelo De Los Reyes as the Supreme Bishop of the Philippine Independent Catholic Church. And again, some two years later, these same three Bishops consecrated another Bishop, Marcario Ga, on the 17^th September 1950. Bishop Ga later became the Supreme Bishop of the Philippine Church after Bishop De Los Reyes.

Thus the Apostolic Succession deriving from the Bishops of the Church of England and the Episcopal Church of Scotland, by way of the Bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, was handed on to the Bishops and Clergy of the Philippine Independent Catholic Church.

Following the crisis of order in the Episcopal Church in 1976, when the Apostolic Succession was broken by the attempt to ordain women to the priesthood, many faithful Episcopalians found themselves unable to remain within the Episcopal Church, and these faithful sought pastoral care from Bishops who refused to compromise their faith and integrity.

Therefore, in order to care for these displaced Episcopalians, the Bishops of the Philippine Independent Catholic Church, being also Bishops of the world-wide Anglican Communion, established a separate Anglican jurisdiction in the United States to provide pastoral oversight and care for these faithful Catholic Anglicans that had left the Episcopal Church. This new jurisdiction was named the Anglican Rite Jurisdiction of the Americas, and three Bishops of the Philippine Independent Catholic Church, Bishops Francisco Pagtakan, Sergio Mondala, and Lope Rosete, consecrated three Episcopal priests, Robert Q. Kennaugh, Gerald Wayne Craig, and Forrest Ogden Miller, to be Bishops for the new jurisdiction in order to ensure the continuation of an authentic Apostolic Succession and valid episcopacy in the United States of America. It was hoped that this would provide proper pastoral oversight for Episcopalians who were no longer able to remain within the Episcopal Church.

The Anglican Rite Jurisdiction of the Americas also attracted Clergy from other independent jurisdictions, noteably from the Reformed Episcopal Church and certain of the Old Catholic Churches. The Philippine Independent Catholic Church is a member not only of the Anglican Communion, but also of the Utrecht Union of Old Catholic Churches, and it was natural for Old Catholics of various jurisdictions to find themselves involved with the work of the Philippine Church. Therefore, among those Clergy who were received into the Anglican Rite Jurisdiction of the Americas were Bishop Larry Lee Shaver of the Old Roman Catholic Church, and Bishops Harold Lawrence Trott and Roy Benton Davis, of the Reformed Episcopal Church.

Bishop Shaver had been consecrated to the episcopate by Frederick Littler Pyman on the 8^th July 1972. Bishop Pyman had been consecrated in 1948 by Bishop Henry Carmel Carfora of the Old Roman Catholic Church in North America. Bishop Carfora had himself been consecrated Bishop in 1916 by Bishop De Landas Berghes, the same Old Catholic Bishop who had been a consecrator of Bishop Hulse.

However, when Bishop Shaver was received into the Anglican Rite Jurisdiction of the Americas, it was thought wise to consecrate him again conditionally in order that he would possess orders not only from the line of succession in the Old Catholic Church but would also have the same Anglican succession as the Bishops of the Anglican Communion. Bishop Shaver was therefore conditionally consecrated by Bishop Kennaugh, Bishop Craig, and Bishop Miller, on the 31^st May 1985. Bishop Shaver was later one of the consecrators of Bishop LaFond LaPointe, who in turn was one of the consecrators of Bishop Stephen A. Clark of the Anglican Rite Jurisdiction of the Americas.

This same procedure of ministering a conditional consecration in order to ensure the continuation of the Anglican succession was followed for Bishop Trott who had been received into the Anglican Rite Jurisdiction of the Americas from the Reformed Episcopal Church. This was done as a matter of policy so that all the Bishops of the Anglican Rite Jurisdiction of the Americas would stand in the same line of succession as all the other Bishops of the Anglican Communion, even though there was absolutely no doubt about the validity of their episcopal orders.

However, with the reception of Bishop Trott into the Anglican Jurisdiction of the Americas, another line of the Apostolic Succession was introduced from the Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil.

Bishop Trott had originally been consecrated to the episcopate by the Bishops of the Reformed Episcopal Church. However, because of certain doubts concerning the validity of the orders of the Reformed Episcopal Church, Bishop Trott had sought out the Bishop of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil living in the United States of America, Stephen Corradi-Scarella, and asked Bishop Corradi-Scarella to confer on him the sacred episcopate in order to secure thereby undoubtedly valid episcopal orders. Bishop Trott was therefore consecrated conditionally by Bishop Corradi-Scarella on the 20^th October 1973 at Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to the Roman Pontifical.

The Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil had broken from the Roman Catholic Church in 1946, and established itself as an independent national Catholic Church under Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa. Bishop Duarte Costa had seceded from the Roman Catholic Church after the Second World War in protest against the alleged pro-Fascist sympathies of Pope Pius XII and of the Roman Curia. This nationalist Catholic Church was founded with the intention of ministering to the poor and the outcast of Brazilian society, and to place ecclesiastical power in the hands of its people.

Bishop Duarte Costa had been consecrated as the Roman Catholic Bishop of Botocatu, Sao Paolo, by the Roman Catholic Cardinal Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro and titular Bishop of Orthosia, Sebastiao Cardinal Leme de Silveira Cintra, assisted by Alberto Jose Concalves and Benedito Paolo Alves de Souza, on the 8^th December 1924. Cardinal de Silveira Cintra had himself been consecrated by Joaquin Cardinal Arcoverde de Albuquerque-Cavalcanti, whose own episcopal orders derived ultimately from the auxiliary Bishop of Chieti and titular Patriarch of Constantinople, Scipione Cardinal Rebiba. It is back to Cardinal Rebiba that most of the Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church today trace their Apostolic Succession, including the present Bishop of Rome, His Holiness Pope John Paul II.

In 1948, in order to secure the continuation of the Apostolic Succession for the Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil, Bishop Duarte Costa consecrated Bishop Corradi-Scarella to the episcopate on the 23^rd January 1949 at Caracas, Venezuela. This Brazilian line of the Apostolic Succession was then handed on to Bishop Trott. After having been received into the Anglican Rite Jurisdiction of the Americas, Bishop Trott assisted in the consecration of Jose Manuel Delgado on the 7^th October 1988, and then consecrated Roy Benton Davis on the 26^th August 1989, according to the Ordinal of the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church together with the rites and ceremonies of the Philippine Independent Catholic Church. Thus, to Bishop Jose Manuel Delgado and to Bishop Roy Benton Davis, the Apostolic Succession from the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil was transmitted by Bishop Harold Lawrence Trott. This line of the Apostolic Succession would later be transmitted by Bishop Davis to Bishop Stephen A. Clark, and by Bishop Delgado to Bishop Jon Mark Lindenauer.

From the Old Catholic Church of Utrecht and from the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil valid episcopal orders were therefore transmitted to the Bishops of the Anglican Rite Jurisdiction of the Americas; and because these Bishops had all been duly consecrated either according to the Roman Pontifical or else according to the Ordinal of the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church derived from the Ordinal of 1662, there can be no doubt whatsoever concerning the authenticity of their Apostolic Succession, nor of the validity of their orders.

When the time came for Bishops to be consecrated for the Christian Episcopal Church, three of the Bishops of the Anglican Rite Jurisdiction of the Americas joined with Archbishop Davies in the act of consecration. Thus Bishop Stanton Patrick Murphy was consecrated by Archbishop Davies, assisted by Bishop Kennaugh and Bishop Clark of the Anglican Rite Jurisdiction of the Americas, thereby handing on to him the Apostolic Succession from the Church of England and the Episcopal Church of Scotland, as well as from the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands and the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil. This same authentic Apostolic Succession was then handed on to Bishop Jon Mark Lindenauer who, in 1996, was consecrated Bishop for the Christian Episcopal Church at the hands of Archbishop Davies, assisted by Bishop Delgado, Bishop Murphy, and Bishop Clark.

Then, at the Synod of the Christian Episcopal Church in the United States of America held at Tucson, Arizona, in 2002, this same renewed Apostolic Succession was handed on to Bishop Theodore Chris Casimes who was consecrated to be the Suffragan Bishop assisting Bishop Lindenauer.

Lastly, on the 8^th September 2002, Robert David Redmile was consecrated to be the first Bishop of the Christian Episcopal Church of Canada at Richmond, British Columbia, by Archbishop Archibald Donald Davies, assisted by Bishop Jon Mark Lindenauer and Bishop Theodore Chris Casimes. This will ensure, God willing, the continuation of the authentic Apostolic Succession, and of valid Catholic orders, for the Christian Episcopal Church of Canada.

The validity of orders is essential for the Catholic Church because it ensures that the power and authority to preach the Word of God and to minister His holy Sacraments comes directly from Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself through His holy Apostles and those Bishops who stand in succession from them. This means that it is not from the authority of man that a Bishop or Priest has received his commission to minister, but from God. This also ensures that the Bishops, Priests, and Deacons in the Christian Episcopal Church have the same power and authority to preach and to minister the Sacraments as do the Bishops, Priests, and Deacons in the Roman Catholic Church. This authentic Apostolic Succession, and the corresponding validity of the orders deriving therefrom, then becomes, along with our mutual profession of the one Catholic Faith, the basis upon which we all may have unity and communion within the fellowship of the one Body of Jesus Christ.

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