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Consecration of a Bishop by One Bishop Can Occur By Economia in Times of Trouble
A topic of much debate is the validity of the consecration of a bishop by one bishop alone, when this is done within the realms of the Orthodox Church. The 1st Apostolic Canon states that: "One bishop is ordained by two or three other bishops." This rule was created so as to prevent a bishop from appointing a successor without the approval of the neighboring bishops. The attendance of other bishops at a consecration is to certify their agreement in the matter of the candidate's election.However, all the canons were established for times of peace. In times of ecclesiastical and/or political turmoil, dispensation (economia) can be employed in order to serve God and the Church without disruption, especially if there is no other option. Thus, St. Nicephorus wrote: "In times of heresy, according to necessity, not everything is to occur in accordance with the canons which are established in times of peace." (St. Nicephorus, "Answer to Question 1 of Monk Methodius.") In times of heresy and persecution, where it is difficult for more than one bishop to be gathered, a bishop can be consecrated by one bishop alone, for the sake of preserving the Apostolic Succession and handing it down to the next generation. Thus the Apostolic Constitutions state the following: "Let a bishop be ordained by three or two bishops... But if there be a necessity that he have only one to ordain him, because more bishops cannot come together, as in time of persecution, or for such like causes, let him bring the suffrage of permission from more bishops." (Apostolic Constitutions, Book VIII, 8:27.) In other words, the bishop can conduct the mystery of consecration alone, while only asking the permission to do so from the bishops who were unable to arrive. This means that the grace of consecration can still be passed on even if only one bishop is present to perform the mystery itself.This is also confirmed by St. Nicodemus of Athos in his interpretation of the 1st Apostolic Canon in the Rudder:"The Apostolic Injunctions (Book 8, Chapter 27), on the other hand, commands that anyone ordained by a single bishop be deposed from office along with the one who ordained him, except only in case of persecution or some other impediment by reason whereof a number of bishops cannot get together and he has to be ordained by one alone, just as was Siderius ordained bishop of Palaebisca, according to Synesius, not by three, but by one bishop, Philo, because of the scarcity of bishops in those times." (The Rudder,Orthodox Christian Education Society, Chicago, 1957, p. 4, lines 11-13 of footnote.)Chapter 42 of Roman Emperor Justinian, as quoted in the Rudder of Patriarch St. Joseph of Moscow, states the following: "If three bishops cannot be obtained, it is fitting for the election to the episcopate to be made with two and with one." (Rudder of Patriarch Joseph,quoting Chapter 42 of Justinian the Emperor, folio 302 on the obverse.)It is well established that the necessity of more than one bishop pertains to the candidate's election, and not to the rite of consecration itself. This is evident in the actual service of consecration according to the practice of the Orthodox Church. Thus, the prayer of consecration is read by only one bishop, while the remaining bishops only assist as witnesses, not as consecrators. The service also indicates that only one bishop, the consecrator, awards the candidate with his mitre and staff, and presents him to the faithful. Also, the text of the consecration of a bishop, according to the OrthodoxEuchologion,includes the following statement voiced from the consecrating bishop to the newly-consecrated bishop: "Hierarch: The Grace of the All-holy and Life-creating Spirit, through my humility, appoints thee Metropolitan of the most holy Metropolis (of whatever)."Thus a bishop is consecrated by only one bishop, as far as the service of consecration is concerned. This is definitely the case, because the office of bishop is the highest office in the Church, and there is no mystery that a bishop cannot perform, including the mystery of consecration. For if a bishop was deprived of this right, he would not possess thefullness of the priesthood,which is how the office of episcopate is regarded. Thus St. Symeon of Thessalonica writes: "The first seal and beginning of the consecration is made by the first bishop on the head of the one being consecrated." (Symeon of Thessalonica, Chapter 205.)In fact, the idea that the assisting bishops supposedly partake as consecrators and not as witnesses, is of Frankish origin. Thus the Papists themselves admit in their own Catholic Encyclopedia: "The part assigned by the Roman Pontifical in its present form to the assistant bishops is, after helping to place the book of the Gospels on the shoulders of the elect, to join the consecrator in laying hands on his head, and in saying over him the words Accipe Spiritum Sanctum. But it is the consecrator alone who, with extended hands, says the Eucharistic prayer, which constitutes the "essential form" of the rite. In the Oriental rites, Uniat and schismatic, no words of any kind are assigned to the assistant bishops; this was also the case with the ancient Western rites, the words Accipe Spiritum Sanctum being a late medieval addition." (Catholic Encyclopedia,Sydney Fenn Smith, 1913, "Co-consecrators.")In 1920, Metropolitan Ambrosius (Stavrinos) of Caesarea wrote: "The consecration of every hierarch has one and the same type for all, whether a bishop of an inexistent diocese is being appointed, or of a certain city, or a Metropolis, or even a Patriarchate. And this because the Church recognizes only three degrees in the hierarchy, namely that of deacon, presbyter and bishop. But because in the history of the Church there are also mentioned consecrations of bishops by only one bishop, which the Church recognized, this means, that the consecration of a bishop is performed by only one bishop, the remaining [bishops] standing to the side of the one [bishop] as official witnesses of the consecration of the one being consecrated." (Ambrosius, Metropolitan of Caesarea,The Essential Truths of the Christian Faith,Constantinople, 1920, p. 100-101.)In 1929, Metropolitan Gennadius of Heliopolis wrote: "That the episcopal degree, to wit, the rank of the bishop, has the authority to ordain clergy of all ranks is a question that has from every point of view been solved for the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ. If the bishop ordains deacons and presbyters, by every means the same liturgist can also elect a bishop... The bishop contains the fullness of the priesthood as a successor of the Apostles, and thereby also the grace to consecrate deacons, presbyters and bishops." (Metropolitan Gennadius of Heliopolis, "Orthodoxy," Constantinople, July 1929, volume 43.)In 1950, Metropolitan Chrysostom of Florina himself, oddly enough, also attested to the validity of single-handed consecrations. He thus wrote: "The Ecumenical Patriarchate recognized all of the ecclesiastical and sacramental acts performed by all the bishops consecrated by the ever-memorable Metropolitan of Iconium kyr Procopius, namely Gerbasius of Sebastia, Meletius of Patara and Constantine of Ancyra. As such, the Patriarchate of Alexandria, to prove the invalidity of the Church of Greece's deposition of the Old Calendarist hierarchs, priests and deacons, did not only have no problem with the validity of their acts, but also accepts into her embrace the Old Calendarist clergy that transfer to it, as valid and canonical without reordination." (Metropolitan Chrysosotm of Florina, "Gnomodotesis," published by Monk Victor Matthaiou, May 11, 1971.)Bishop Theophilus of Campania wrote: "The hierarch has seven services according to the number of the divine energies of the Spirit. These are baptism, chrismation, sealing of a reader, tonsure of a subdeacon, ordination of a deacon, presbyter, and bishop, even if he performs these alone." (Bishop Theophilus of Campania,Treasury of Orthodoxy,p. 64-65.)The well-known canonist and theologian, Professor Panagiotes Trembelas, wrote: "Therein it leads one to conclude that even in the consecration of a bishop, deemed by the first apostolic canon [to be performed] "by two or three bishops" does not infer that the one bishop cannot in necessity consecrate another bishop, but the presence of the many bishops is ordered for the witness of two or three others that he who was elected by the people for this dignity is worthy of it." (P. Trembelas,Dogmatike,Volume 3, Athens, 1961, p. 298.)Protopresbyter N. Afanasiev notes the following: "In the Ancient Church the sacrament of consecration to the episcopate was always accomplished by only one bishop, as follows from the rite of hierarchical consecration of the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus of Rome (II) and the Apostolic Decrees of St. Clement of Rome (VIII.4, 5), while the remaining bishops and members of the clergy stand near the altar as witness to the reality of the consecration." (Protopresbyter N. Afanasiev,The Ecclesiology of Entering the Clergy,Kiev, 1997, pp. 38-42” (op. cit., p. 96, note 10.)Consecration of a bishop by only one bishop has occurred many times in ecclesiastical history. One of the most interesting examples is the following from the life of St. Augustine of Canterbury. Dr. Vladimir Moss, an expert in English Orthodox history, writes:"From Yorkshire Augustine headed for the borders of Wales, in order to meet the British bishops whose fathers had fled to the West to escape the invasions of the pagan Anglo-Saxons. Augustine had been given authority over the British bishops by [Pope] St. Gregory [of Rome]; but the task of uniting with the British Christians did not prove to be easy. The first obstacle was that the British, having suffered much from the Anglo-Saxons, were not willing to join with Augustine in trying to convert them to the Faith. The second obstacle was that as a result of their isolation from the Church on the continent, the British Church had slipped into practices which were at variance with the apostolic traditions... Augustine stipulated three conditions for union: that the British should correct [their] two canonical irregularities; and that they should cooperate with him in converting the Saxons. However, the British refused to accede on any of these points... "On his return to the East, Augustine baptized King Sebert of Essex and consecrated St. Mellitus as bishop of Sebert's capital, London. In the same year he consecrated St. Justus as bishop of Rochester. Then just before his death he consecrated St. Laurence as his successor at Canterbury. These consecrations by a single bishop were blessed by [Pope] St. Gregory [of Rome] as an exception to the apostolic rule that bishops should be consecrated by no less than two bishops, because of the fact that there were no other canonical bishops in Britain..." (Moss, Vladimir: "St. Augustine of Canterbury", Traditionalist List, yahoogroups, 2000).The fact that Pope St. Gregory of Rome permitted St. Augustine of Canterbury to perform single-handed consecrations is also confirmed by the Venerable Bede, who narrates the events in which St. Augustine of Canterbury sent messengers to Pope St. Gregory of Rome in the year 599, asking him various questions of great importance. The messengers returned to England in 601 with St. Gregory's answers. St. Augustine's sixth question and St. Gregory's answer thereto were as follows: "VI. Augustine's sixth question. Whether a bishop may be consecrated without other bishops present, if they are at so great a distance from one another that they cannot easily meet. Gregory answered: In the English Church of which you are as yet the only Bishop, it is not possible for you to consecrate a bishop otherwise than alone. For how often do bishops come from Gaul who can assist as witnesses at the consecration of a Bishop? But, my brother, we wish you to consecrate bishops in order that they may not be separated by long distances, and thus there will be no lack, so that at the consecration of a bishop, other pastors may easily be present: for their presence is extremely useful." (Venerable Bede,The Ecclesiastical History of the English People.)However, this is not the only example. For instance, in the history of the Celtic Orthodox Church in Britain and Ireland, single-handed consecrations were not only performed, but they were considered to be the normal procedure. It was a distinctive feature of the Celtic Typicon. A professor in Celtic historical and ecclesiastical studies makes the following observation: "In the Life of Saint Kentigern [Mungo, of Glasgow, c. +610], it is related that he was consecrated to the episcopate by a single bishop who had been summoned from Ireland for that purpose, according to the custom of the Britons and Scots. A similar fact is recorded in the legendary lives of the Welsh SS. David [+590], Dubricius [+545], Teilo [+580] etc. There is a curious legend of the consecration of St. Columba [+597] by Bishop Etchain... In Ireland the custom of single consecration still obtained in the eleventh century... It is strange that such a custom should have prevailed in the British Church, as three British bishops had been present and had subscribed to the canons of the Council of Arles [314]..." (Warren,Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church,Eastern Orthodox Books, Willits, California, 1979.) Thus, from the above it is likely that the majority of Celtic bishops were consecrated according to this typicon in which one bishop alone consecrates another bishop. Yet many of these bishops are saints of our Church.If the above does not suffice in defending the validity of single-handed consecration, let us look at the life of St. Gregory the Wonderworker. In his great humility, St. Gregorywished to avoid being consecrated a bishop. He travelled into the wilderness to avoid the Bishop Phaedimus of Amaseia, who had met him earlier and saw the zeal which St. Gregory possessed and wished to consecrate him to the see of Neocaesarea. St. Gregory traveled further and further from Bishop Phaedimus to avoid the consecration, and had reached the distance of a few days travel from the bishop. Bishop Phaedimus, being humble and obedient to the will of God, looked up to God with tears in his eyes and prayed: "O Almighty Lord, Who knowest all things, in this hour look down upon Gregory and I, thy slaves, and make effective this consecration by thy grace, laying on him the word instead of the hand, setting him apart to God though he is not present bodily, and allot to him that city [i.e., Neocaesarea]." Not only did Bishop Phaedimus consecrate St. Gregory all by himself, without the assistance of any other bishops, but he consecrated him while he was not even present! Does anyone dare call into question the consecration of St. Gregory the Wonderworker?Many other examples of single-handed consecration exist in ecclesiastical history, including the following:i.In 52 AD, St. Thomas the Apostle arrived in India, according to tradition. There he baptized several people, and single-handedly consecrated two bishops, namely, Bishop Cephas of Malabar and Bishop Paul of Mylapore. He named them so, that they might be imitators of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and that the first would be in charge of the Jewish Christians of India, and the second overseer of the gentile former Hindus.ii.In 240 AD, St. Gregory the Wonderworker was consecrated Bishop of Neocaesarea by only one bishop, Phaedimus of Amasia. Notable is the fact that the consecration was not only single-handed, but took place from a distance, Phaedimus being more than three days journey away from St. Gregory at the time he consecrated him by praying to God to transfer the grace of Apostolic Succession by word instead of hand.iii.In 249 AD, St. Nicon was single-handedly consecrated by Bishop Theodosius of Cyzicus.iv.In 300 AD, Bishop Meletius (or Melitius) of Lycopolis consecrated several bishops on his own. These bishops were received into communion by the First Ecumenical Council in 325 AD without reconsecration.v.In 350 AD, Bishop Philo of Cyrene single-handedly consecrated Bishop Siderius of Palaebisca. This consecration was accepted by St. Athanasius the Great, who elevated him to Metropolitan of Ptolemais.vi.In 362 AD, Paulinus was consecrated Bishop of Antioch by only one bishop, Lucifer of Calaris (Cagliari in Sardinia). Despite this, Paulinus was accepted as the rightful Bishop of Antioch by St. Athanasius the Great, St. Epiphanius of Salamis and the entire Church of the West.vii.In 379 AD, St. Desan (Disan) was consecrated single-handedly by St. Heliodorus in Persia.viii.In 388 AD, Bishop Evagrius was single-handedly consecrated by Paulinus of Antioch, and Evagrius was accepted by St. Athanasius the Great, St. Epiphanius of Salamis, St. Ambrose of Milan, and many others.ix.In 395 AD, Blessed Augustine of Hippo was consecrated by only one bishop, Megalius of Calama.x.In 403 AD, at the Synod of the Oak, one of 20 reasons set forth by the enemies of St. John Chrysostom was the fact he had single-handedly consecrated four bishops. However, the Synod decided that this did not suffice for his deposition. He was thus deposed for other reasons, from which he was also later exonerated.xi.In 431 AD, Bishop Eusebius of Ancyra single-handedly consecrated Bishop Callinicus of Gangra.xii.In 432 AD, St. Patrick of Ireland single-handedly consecrated St. Fiacc as Bishop of Leinster.xiii.In 444 AD, Bishop Olympus of Theodosiopolis consecrated Bishop Bassian of Ephesus single-handedly, after being constantly begged to do so by the clergy and faithful of Ephesus. Bassian was later accepted by Patriarch Proclus of Constantinople without reconsecration.xiv.In 540 AD, St. Kentigern Bishop of Glasgow was consecrated by a single bishop who had been summoned from Ireland for that purpose, according to the custom of the Britons and Scots.xv.In 542 AD, St. Columba was single-handedly consecrated by Bishop Etchain of Clonfad.xvi.In 604 AD, St. Augustine, Archbishop of Canterbury performed single-handed consecrations. He single-handedlyconsecrated St. Mellitus as Bishop of London and St. Justus as Bishop of Rochester. Then just before his death he consecrated St. Laurence as his successor at Canterbury.xvii.In 741 AD, St. Stephen of Sourozh single-handedly consecrated a successor-bishop in Crimea.xviii.In 859 AD, St. Photius the Great was consecrated single-handedly by Archbishop Gregory of Syracuse to ensure valid Apostolic Succession, because almost all of the bishops in the East had been consecrated by bishops who were iconoclasts, while the bishops in the West were in favor of the holy icons.xix.In 1211 AD, St. Sabbas, Archbishop of Serbia, single-handedly consecrated 9 new bishops for Serbia.xx.In 1454 AD, Gennadius Scholarius was consecrated Patriarch of Constantinople single-handedly by the Metropolitan of Heraclea, because the remaining bishops had not yet revoked the false union of Florence.xxi.In 1506, Bishop Arsenius (Apostolius) of Monembasia was consecrated by only one bishop, the Metropolitan of Ellis, assisted by two presbyters acting in the place of bishops.xxii.In 1596, Bishop Gideon (Balaban) of Lvov, upon the advice of Patriarch Meletius of Alexandria, single-handedly consecrated bishops throughout Poland and Ukraine to replace the bishops that had at that time accepted the Gregorian calendar and submitted to a union with the Roman Catholics of Poland.
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| John_Alden | At least one bishop required to accept clergy | 0 | Sep 1 2009, 5:53 PM EDT by John_Alden | ||
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Thread started: Sep 1 2009, 5:53 PM EDT
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At least one bishop required to accept other clergy
No matter what the need of the Church, no earthly ordained clergy can be accepted without the approval of at least one unworldly right believing earthly consecrated bishop. No earthly consecrated bishop can be received without the approval of at least one unworldly right believing earthly consecrated bishop. Where is there even one unworldly right believing earthly consecrated bishop? |
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| John_Alden | The Desolate Sanctuary | 0 | Sep 1 2009, 5:49 PM EDT by John_Alden | ||
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Thread started: Sep 1 2009, 5:49 PM EDT
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The strict Old Believer condition of having no earthly ordained clergy was foretold by the Holy Prophet Daniel as, “...thy sanctuary that is desolate.” - Daniel 9:17.
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