“The teaching that authority in the church has been transmitted by ordination or laying on of hands from the apostles to present-day clergy.”—Millard J. Erickson
APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION: Were There Divinely Appointed Successors of the Twelve Apostles with Authority, and Is the Pope the Successor of Peter?
Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bishops.