Historical Episcopate

The Roman Catholic Church holds that a bishop's consecration is valid if the sacrament of Holy Orders is validly administered with the intention of doing what the Church does by ordination and according to a valid sacramental form, and if the consecrating bishop's orders are valid, regardless of whether the rite takes place within or outside of the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, Roman Catholics recognize the validity of the episcopacy of Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East and Old Catholic bishops, but the situation is less clear regarding Anglican bishops and some Independent Catholic bishops (aka Episcopi vagantes).

The Eastern Orthodox Church's view has been summarized as follows: "While accepting the canonical possibility of recognizing the existence (υποστατόν) of sacraments performed outside herself, (the Eastern Orthodox Church) questions their validity (έγκυρον) and certainly rejects their efficacy (ενεργόν)"; and it sees "the canonical recognition (αναγνώρισις) of the validity of sacraments performed outside the Orthodox Church (as referring) to the validity of the sacraments only of those who join the Orthodox Church (individually or as a body)." This applies to the validity and efficacy of the ordination of bishops and the other sacraments, not only of the Independent Catholic Churches, but also of all other Christian Churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, and the Assyrian Church of the East.

The Eastern Orthodox position on Anglican orders (in the hypothesis of Anglican bishops joining the Orthodox Church individually or as a body) is a grey area, involving disagreements among national churches, theologians and bishops. Because of changes in the Ordinal (the rites of Holy Orders) under King Edward VI, the Roman Catholic Church does not fully recognize all Anglican Holy Orders as valid, but the latter are recognized (and participated in) by Old Catholics, whose Holy Orders are considered valid by Rome.

Lutheran and other episcopally ordered Protestant successions are not recognized by Roman Catholics. The Anglican Church does not recognize the orders of non-episcopal denominations.

The Trinitarian Catholic Church recognizes the historical preeminence of the Jerusalem Church, the earliest Semetic-Christian church, under the episcopal authority of the first Christian bishop, +James the Great who was the brother of Jesus. They, together with the Orthodox, Eastern, Asian and African churches are the true remnant of the earliest Christian churches, in all their great diversity, established by the first Apostles. The Trinitarian Catholic Church recognizes the validity of the Apostolic Succession of all the churches of the West and the East that were founded by the first Apostles. We also fully recognize the validity of the Holy Orders of the Anglican Church, the Episcopal Church, the Lutheran Church, the Old Catholic and most Independent and Autocephalous Catholic churches and those episcopally ordered Protestant successions proceeding from the post-Reformation era led by valid bishops who broke from the Church of Rome.   

Bishop Coates and more than 91% of the world's more than 5,000 Western bishops alive today trace their episcopal lineage back to a 15th Century Roman Catholic bishop, Scipione Cardinal Rebiba. In the early 18th century, Pope Benedict XIII, whose orders were descended from Rebiba, personally consecrated at least 139 bishops for various important European sees, including German, French, English and New World bishops. These bishops in turn consecrated bishops almost exclusively for their respective countries, effectively causing other episcopal lines to die out.