On the Term “Vagante”

Jules Ferrette, consecrated Bishop of Glastonbury by the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Boutros ibn Salmo Mesko in 1866, he was long considered a Vagante Bishop by the Anglicans and Roman Catholics, until recent decisions by the Oriental Orthodox have allowed the canonical reception of his episcopal descendants into their communion

Dear Friend, 

I hear from our mutual friend that you took offense at my mention of the group in question as “Episcopi Vagante.” I understand that, in the Anglican context, the accusation of someone being an “Episcopi Vagante” is always meant to be a conversation stopper. Anglicans, who, by the current Eastern framework, are a church established by Vagantes, and whose orders were harshly dismissed by Pope Leo XIII in the Apostolicae Curae, are understandably uncomfortable with the term. If I use it, however, it is not meant as a disparaging remark, but a technical diagnosis for why various groups claiming to be Orthodox are not immediately receivable into our communion with canonical requirements based on the regularity of the current Eastern Orthodox practice. I graduated from an Orthodox seminary with an MA in Orthodox Theology and had my initial formation in the Ecumenical Patriarchate. I am currently in an Eastern Orthodox PhD with Euclid’s Pavel Florensky School of Eastern Orthodox Studies program and am continuing my research in the field of canon law. I love and appreciate the Anglican Patrimony, and practice the Western Rite exclusively, but I am thinking about canonical issues from an Eastern perspective. 

From an Eastern canonical perspective, a vagante is someone consecrated without a synod, like the word "vagrant" implies, and works independently of the synodality which Orthodox believe is the basis of sacramental validity. Any bishop, even validly ordained, becomes a “vagante” when he leaves his original communion and strikes out on his own, without permission, accountability and mutual recognition. "One bishop is no bishop" as the old canonical maxim states. This lack of “place” and the lack of proper accountability in the foundation of the episcopal office, leads to a lack of overall validity and consideration. 

Joseph René Vilatte (1854 - 1929), Consecrated Archbishop by the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in India, leaving their communion and starting multiple churches, eventually returning to Roman Catholicism as a layman

Arnold Matthew (1852 - 1919), Consecrated by the Utrecht Old Catholic Communion, leaving their communion and then starting his own "Old Catholic" church in Great Britain 

Ulric Vernon Herford (1866-1938), Consecrated Bishop by the Chaldean Syrian Church of India and then losing canonical connection due to the death of his consecrators in India, leading to the founding of his own church "The Evangelical Catholic Church"

By the current Orthodox understanding of how God’s grace works in the Church, Rome removed itself from God’s sacral economy by wandering into error. While in error and no longer “valid,” Rome holds an ancient jurisdiction and is recognized and relied upon by many people, thus making it schismatic and heretical, but not forfeiting its cultural and historical importance. It is schismatic, but not "Vagrant" or "Wandering" in a literal sense, having always kept a form of synodality. A Vagante, however, does not hold claim to canonically regular orders and has no claim to jurisdiction through an established community with legal rights. 

The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church could be received by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2018 in their orders because they always maintained a synod and a claim to its place of establishment, Ukraine, and a process of election and ordination that follows the precedents of the Ancient Canons. Other groups must be re-ordained when converting to Orthodoxy, because they are believed to have either left synodality through heresy, excommunication, illegitimate ordinations, or because of canonical defects in those ordinations render them doubtful. 

The reason I do not believe our Church to be a vagante organization is simple: we were rightfully established in our place by one who had the authority to establish us, Patriarch Nicholas VI, and the Church has never left proper synodality, always maintaining a college of bishops in communion with other validly established local Churches. By these two historical marks of regularity, we are not a vagante church. 

Rather than dwelling upon this canonical category as a slur, let us consider what the Orthodox Pope, St. Leo the Great, had to say about the validity of irregular episcopal ordination when performed by schismatic bishops. It is mirrored in the contemporary practice of the Orthodox Church, which accepts Roman Catholic and Oriental Orthodox ordinations, so long as they profess the same Orthodox Faith: 

"Donatus of Salacia, who, as we learn, has been converted from the Novatians with his people, we wish to preside over the Lord's flock, on condition that he remembers he must send a certificate of his faith to us, in which he not only condemns the error of the Novatian dogma, but also unreservedly confesses the Catholic truth. Maximus, also, although he was culpably ordained when a layman, yet if he is now no longer a Donatist, and has abjured the spirit of schismatic depravity, we do not depose from his episcopal dignity, which he has obtained irregularly, on the condition that he declare himself a Catholic by drawing up a certificate for us.” 

The point of the holy canons is not to exclude and jealously guard our power, but make sure that every community has valid bishops, priests and deacons to serve them the sacraments, so that they may have a local Church and a pathway to salvation. Nothing else should be our goal in any ecclesial decisions. We always operate with the good of others first and foremost in our minds, conforming to good order, right practice and orthodox doctrine. Thus, we do not hold those ordained irregularly to be unsalvageable and on a certain path to destruction. No, we call them to Orthodoxy and a continued pathway towards salvation with us! This is why I do not consider the term “Episcopi Vagante” to be a slur or a conversation stopper, and why I use it in the way that I do, merely denoting that someone is currently outside of canonically recognizable synodality. 

May God bless you as you seek to follow Him in a new ecclesial capacity! 

Bp. Joseph 

Ancient Church of the West