The significance of the unbroken apostolic succession is found in the promise of Christ that the “gates of hell” shall not prevail against the Church. This was ensured by the succession of bishops going back to the Apostles, where Christ is ever present, just as He promised to be with us even to the ends of the earth.
However, this lineage alone will not complete apostolic succession in the absence of “holding firm” to the Apostles’ teaching. The unadulterated truth passed down from one generation of Christians to the next traces its origin to the words of the apostles as they heard from Jesus. A lineage that is ceremoniously undamaged but found wanting in orthodoxy disrupts apostolicity. Apostolic succession requires fidelity to the doctrines handed down from faithful men to faithful men.
The third element is communion, viewed on two fronts. First, internally: full communion with the episcopacy of the CEC — to the Patriarch and to all the bishops of the CEC. Second, externally: as we seek unity with other communions, our brothers and sisters in the faith.
The CEC never claims to be the only true church of Christ, nor the only bearer of the light of Christ. We, the same as other Christian communions, are all on a journey towards God.
The CEC is not a transitional communion nor a bridge towards another Church. It is home for all Christians seeking a sacramental, evangelical, and charismatic expression of the Christian faith in a liturgical framework.
The Charismatic Episcopal Church was never a schismatic communion. We are not a “break away” group from any institutional church. This is deemed important considering that we, as a communion, must appeal to the church catholic for unity. We were birthed from a desire to seek God — not from discontentment with leadership, nor from escaping chastisement.
As a communion, the Charismatic Episcopal Church endeavours to seek Christ in the lives of the least, the lost, and the lonely. Jesus said, “I am the Vine, you are the branches.” (John 15:5)
The CEC is one of the branches that sprouted in the Great Vine with the consecration of its first Patriarch, thus receiving apostolic grace for the communion in 1992. Later, the bishops of the CEC received the apostolic hand from the Rebiban Line through the Brazilian Catholic Church (Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa) in November 1997. The CEC is a young branch abiding in the Great Vine — newly sprouted, but a branch nonetheless.