WBC President To Consecrate
100 New Bishops
Nearly 70 Qualified Candidates Begin Preparation for Consecration
SPRINGFIELD- Archbishop Timothy Paul announced that he will consecrate 100 bishops in 2010 to transform cities for Christ. "As I travel the country, I realize that many of our cities lack Christian leadership in the age of transition. The work of the eary apostles transformed cities for Christ", Paul said.
The World Bishops Council (WBC) president is seeking candidates who are willing to submit to an intensive clergy formation. Archbishop Paul will bestow the ancient "Apostolic Succession" to all consecrated bishops.
Apostolic succession is the tracing of a direct line of apostolic ordination, Ancient doctrine, and full communion from the Apostles to the current episcopacy of the Ancient and Orthodox Church. All three elements are constitutive of apostolic succession.
It is through apostolic succession that the Ancient Faith Christian Church is the spiritual successor to the original body of believers in Christ that was composed of the Apostles. This succession manifests itself through the unbroken succession of its bishops back to the apostles.
The unbrokenness of apostolic succession is significant because of Jesus Christ's promise that the "gates of hell" (Matthew 16:18) would not prevail against the Church, and his promise that he himself would be with the apostles to "the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). According to this interpretation, a complete disruption or end of such apostolic succession would mean that these promises were not kept as would an apostolic succession which, while formally intact, completely abandoned the teachings of the Apostles and their immediate successors; as, for example, if all the bishops of the world agreed to abrogate the Nicene Creed or repudiate the Holy Scripture.
Ancient Faith teachings today are the same as that of the first apostles, though their mode of expression has adapted over the centuries to deal with heresies, changes in culture and so forth. This form of the doctrine was first formulated by St. Irenaeus of Lyons in the second century, in response to certain Gnostics. These Gnostics claimed that Christ or the Apostles passed on some teachings secretly, or that there were some secret apostles, and that they (the Gnostics) were passing on these otherwise secret teachings. Irenaeus responded that the identity of the original Apostles was well known, as was the main content of their teaching and the identity of the Apostles' successors.
"Through countryside and city [the apostles] preached, and they appointed their earliest converts, testing them by the Spirit, to be the bishops and deacons of future believers. Nor was this a novelty, for bishops and deacons had been written about a long time earlier. . . . Our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry" Clement I Letter to the Corinthians 42:4–5, 44:1–3 A.D. 80
"When I had come to Rome, I [visited] Anicetus, whose deacon was Eleutherus. And after Anicetus [died], Soter succeeded, and after him Eleutherus. In each succession and in each city there is a continuance of that which is proclaimed by the law, the prophets, and the Lord" Hegesippus Memoirs, cited in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4:22 A.D. 180
"It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known to us throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like what these heretics rave about" Irenaeus Against Heresies 3:3:1 A.D. 189
The consecration is scheduled for Septenber 2010 . For more information, write the Office of the WBC President at worldbishopscouncil@mail.com
since the 19th century ignores John (citing five influential opinions: Bornkamm, Sanders, Crossan, Wright, Vermes), it is not wise to ignore John in Jesus studies. Posing "ten reasons for reassessing a putative consensus" (also citing five influential opinions: Meier, Theissen/Mertz, Bauckham, Anderson, Smith) he calls for a major paradigm shift in Jesus studies—making use of all ancient sources in the quest for Jesus, including John. 