| abstract | - Apostolic Succesion (Mirian Syriac: Yuwbala’ šliyḥay) is the doctrine (or teaching) that today's Church is (or those in church leadership are) the spiritual successor to the Twelve Apostles of Yešwa Mišyah. The Mirian Church of the East does claim Apostolic Succesion, but not in the same way that traditional Orthodox, Catholic, and Episcopal/Anglican Churches do. Holy Tradition is passed on through a collective succession of bishops, one of whom is thought to represent Saint Thomas the Apostle and the church he established in India. We may go to the Reverends (Rabbane) for guidance and blessings, but not as superiors of the Law of Mišyah. They have the authority of teaching the Law and performing the Sacraments. Mirianism teaches that the Twelve Apostles were merely teachers of the Way of Mišyah, and provided the foundation for Church tradition. However, the liturgical tradition of the Mirian Church is the tradition that has been handed down by a long line of bishops of the ancient churches that is traced back to five Elders. The Apostolic line began with Saint James the Just in the Church of Jerusalem, Saint Thomas in the Church of India, Saint Peter in the Church of Antioch, Saint Mark in the Church of Alexandria, and Saint Andrew in the Church of Constantinople. Roman Catholicism, Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy hold that they have the literal, unbroken line of Succession. Like mainline Protestantism, however, Mirianism holds that Bishop to Bishop ordinations "cannot be absolutely maintained all the way back to the Apostles." It does, however, "maintain a continuity of Apostolic Ministry." The succession of Saint Thomas in the East (Kerala, india) is believed, by Mirians, to have ended when Bar Sauma of Nisibis (484) adopted Nestorian Christology into the Church of the East. The schism started with the Persian kings who executed Rabban (Mar) Babowai who in turn was replaced with the Nestorian Bar Sauma as bishop of the Church. The Mirian Church of the East claims to reclaim the apostolic line that was tragically brought down with Rabban Babowai. Saint Thomas's Succession originated in Jerusalem, particularly from Saint James (echoing saying 12 in the Gospel of Thomas) and Saint Peter (Galatians 2:9).
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