Methodists and Apostolic Succession, FWIW
This article was linked to on the Confessing Movement FB page. I'm not endorsing it in toto, but I've posted on many of these issues before. For those who are advocates of Apostolic Succession, this will not convince them of the validity of Methodist ordinations; meanwhile, there are many who would understand apostolicity in an entirely different way, and the cachet of AS in Methodism does not add anything of value for them.
The important thing to keep in mind is that Methodism is not one of those movements that just decided to start with a blank piece of paper and make it up according to some theory of church governance derived from their own reading of the Scriptures. We received our practices and theology from those before us, and we see ourselves* in continuity with the English Church tradition going back to before the breakup of Eastern and Western Christianity.
http://www.revneal.org/Writings/apostoli.htm
*Well, some of us do.
The important thing to keep in mind is that Methodism is not one of those movements that just decided to start with a blank piece of paper and make it up according to some theory of church governance derived from their own reading of the Scriptures. We received our practices and theology from those before us, and we see ourselves* in continuity with the English Church tradition going back to before the breakup of Eastern and Western Christianity.
http://www.revneal.org/Writings/apostoli.htm
*Well, some of us do.