The highest order of ministry is that of a bishop. Bishops are elected by Provincial Synods usually through ecclesiastical ballot without nomination. In the Moravian Church, bishops do not have an administrative role but rather serve as spiritual leaders and pastors to the pastors. Bishops serve the worldwide Unity. The Moravian Church teaches that it has preserved apostolic succession. The Church claims apostolic succession as a legacy of the Unity of the Brethren. In order to preserve the succession, three Bohemian Brethren were consecrated bishops by Bishop Stephen of Austria, a Waldensian bishop who had been ordained by a Roman Catholic bishop in 1434. These three consecrated bishops returned to Litice in Bohemia and then ordained other brothers, thereby preserving the historic episcopate. In Berlin, 1735, the Renewed Unity, i.e. the Moravian Brethren in Herrnhut, received the historic episcopal ordination from the two surviving bishops of the Ancient Unity: Bishop John Amos Comenius' grandson Daniel Ernst Jablonski and Christian Sitkovius. This bishop's consecration continues today.