On Younger Bishops

The following is a commentary provided by the Apostolic Synod of Antioch regarding the controversial measure of episcopates being ordained and enthroned prior to the age of thirty and thirty-five, in multiple Christian traditions, and also within the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church.

From the times of the Old Testament's writings, to the first century assemblies being established by the Twelve Apostles, Saint Paul the Apostle, and the Seventy Apostles; and up to the third and fourth centuries following; the priestly ministry has been sustained by men, ordained of God and confirmed by His people. These were men—both young and old—who have been charged to uphold the eternal religion from God; and, these were men, who sometimes served well beyond the culturally acceptable paradigms of age.

Unfortunately, however—and after the rise of the state-recognized and state-sanctioned imperial churches of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria—the priestly ministry transitioned into something where age mattered, with questions of age and maturity increasingly becoming incorporated into ecclesiastical discipline and canonical practice.

As it has been academically acknowledged that there was never a universal age for ordaining clergy—particularly, bishops—in the first four centuries of Christendom; and as it has been historically noted that there have been bishops serving—some as young as five years of age, such as Hugh Vermandois—throughout the chronicles of Christian jurisdiction; the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church responds by upholding this stance and embracing it with steadfastness.

The Ancient Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church—consisting of the Antiochian Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church and the Syracusan Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church—both sustains and dogmatically decrees the lack of a universal, dogmatically-decreed age for ordination as a bishop especially, because Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition do not prioritize "age" or "experience" as litmus tests; rather, it prioritizes knowledge and practice of the faith, rejection against being a recent convert, sustaining discipline, and having fidelity in all things so that a clergyman is ordained for an assignment, and not because of an assignment or age alone.

These examples demonstrate that the historical practice of those communions has not been uniformly governed by the age thresholds now commonly associated with episcopal office.

1. Theophylact Lekapenos, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople — a young man, and the son of a Byzantine emperor; and a young man who was enthroned over the Constantinopolitan Church around the age of 16; he would introduce more theatrical elements to Constantinople's liturgy, and he would be an ecumenical prelate;

2. Constantine Cyril Zaim, Melkite Patriarch of Antioch — a man who was ordained at the approximate age of 18 or 22, and also enthroned at this very age as the Melkite Patriarch of Antioch; his election, ordination, and enthronement was hypocritically contested by the following man;

3. Dositheus Notaras, Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem — ordained into the episcopacy and seated as a metropolitan bishop at the age of 25, and later enthroned as patriarch in the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem at the age of 28; he would contest the election of Cyril Zaim, whilst forgetting that he entered monasticism around age 11, and was likewise ordained prior to an "acceptable" age amongst his own constituents;

4. Grigor Pahlavuni, Oriental Patriarch of Armenia — ordained as the catholicos-patriarch for the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church by his grand-uncle, Grigor II, around 19 or 20 years of age; he would be noted for maintaining peace between the Cilician throne and the Mother See of Armenia; and

5. Charles Borromeo, Roman Archbishop of Milan — ordained at approximately 25 years of age, and noted for his theological and administrative contributions to the Catholic Church in Rome.

From these historic examples—which are merely a handful in contrast to the more than 50 prelates who have been established prior to the ages of 30 and 35, for example—Ancient Orthodoxy holds that the mandates in the First Epistle of Saint Paul to Timothy, the third chapter and first seven verses are more than enough as a theological basis.

Even now, the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church—and especially the Antiochian Metropolitanate—stands in solidarity with younger bishops, including our very own First Among Equals, who was conditionally ordained and regularized into the episcopacy at the age of 26.

Against some who recently—and persistently, for a year—once sought incardination through Ancient Orthodoxy, yet then expressed reservations as to being under someone much younger than them (a set of bishops, bishops-elect, and presbyters from Brazil who are, as of this week, dismissed clergy from the Apostolic Episcopal Church, the Catholicate of the West, and the Byelorussian Orthodox Catholic Patriarchate of Saint Andrew the Apostle); and against others throughout the world who, whether by expressing reservations concerning the age of our hierarch, or by subsequently withdrawing from the incardination process; the Ancient Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church is resolved to continually embrace and clerically form would-be episcopates who might not fit the culturally held paradigms for holy orders.

God calls the young because they are strong, and He uses the elders because they should know the way.