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The episcopate is either the status of a bishop or the collective body of all bishops of a church. In the Roman Catholic, Anglican (including the Episcopal Church in the United States of America), Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Rite Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, and Old-Catholic churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Lutheran churches of the Porvoo Communion, and Independent Catholic Churches and the Unitas Fratrum or Moravian Church, it is held that only a person in a line of succession of bishops dating back to the Apostles can be a Christian bishop, and only such a person can validly ordain Christian clergy. The succession must be transmitted from each bishop to a successor by the rite of Holy Orders. Bishops in such a succession compose the historic episcopate. This is also called the apostolic succession, but that term is also used in a variety of other ways. Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are also ordained through the laying on of hands of bishops in the apostolic succession.

The Roman Catholic Church holds that a bishop's consecration is valid if the sacrament of Holy Orders is validly done according to a valid sacramental form and the consecrating bishop's orders are valid, regardless of whether this 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, Old-Catholic, and Independent Catholic bishops, although these orders are considered "illicit."

The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that a bishop's consecration is less than fully valid if it is not within the "One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church", i.e., one of the canonical Eastern Orthodox churches. In many cases, the doctrine of ekonomia is applied to such bishops if they convert to Orthodoxy.

The Eastern Orthodox position on Anglican orders 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 recognize Anglican Holy Orders as valid, although 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 recognise the orders of non-episcopal denominations.

More than 91% of the world’s more than 4,000 Western bishops alive today trace their episcopal lineage back to a 15th Century 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.

• Episcopalian church governance
• Apostolicae Curae
• Saepius Officio

• Episcopal Lineage from catholic-hierarchy.org
• Methodist Apostolicity by Gregory Neal
• Unofficial Home Page of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church Listing of churches with the Historic Episcopate