Not everything is Holy Tradition

“Custom is the plague of wise men and the idol of fools” — Thomas Fuller

One of the mistakes that is common in liturgical groups is to mistake anything which has been done for a while with Holy Tradition. Even among the Orthodox, there is a common tendency to see what is as what must be kept. This becomes particularly visible in a pan-Orthodox congregation. This past Palm Sunday, we had both palm branches and pussy willows available for the congregation. Why? Because the Orthodox from Russia and other Slavic countries use pussy willows, but the rest use palm branches.

Many Orthodox would be surprised as to what is considered Holy Tradition and what is simply considered tradition. For instance, many Orthodox assume that a “closed” iconostasis is part of Holy Tradition. But, actually, it is not. Throughout Orthodoxy, iconostases are found of various types. Some are little more than a communion rails with the traditional icons on small columns. Some are fully closed to the point that the sanctuary appears to be a fully separate room. Some (my favorite type) are of latticework construction so that you can see through into the sanctuary. Iconostases of all the types mentioned are currently being built in different part of the world. A few are little more than four waist-high columns with icons on top. And, yet, all of these fit into our tradition.

Why do I bring this up? Well, one of the types arguments used against the idea of Holy Tradition is to cite every custom as though it were an unviolable Holy Tradition even though it were of clearly late historical development. There are even some ultra-conservative groups within the Orthodox who make the same argument! That is, some use every historical development as though it were a Holy Tradition rather than a beloved custom, and then argue that this shows the danger of tradition. But, that is not how it works rather, “Unlike many conceptions of tradition in popular understanding, the Orthodox Church does not regard Holy Tradition as something which grows and expands over time, forming a collection of practices and doctrines which accrue, gradually becoming something more developed and eventually unrecognizable to the first Christians.”

But, if you say it is not Holy Tradition, then some argue that they are free to change customs as they will. But, that view is nothing more than changing to the view that our Lord gave no authority to the Church whatsoever in the regulation of the life of the Church. That viewpoint assumes that individual likes and dislikes, regardless of how out of balance or uninformed they might be, rule in the life of the Church. That would also mean that any common life would be nothing more than a series of compromises between a group of individuals, all of whom have the right to leave if their particular likes and dislikes are not honored. At the other extreme, of this viewpoint is the use of the name of the Holy Spirit to justify any particular leanings that one has. Worse, in some groups, the use of the name of the Holy Spirit is the guidance that cannot be disputed, and which, slowly but surely, turns the Holy Spirit into the servant of the culture rather than the breath of God breaking into the culture, or, worse, into the servant of the preacher-in-charge. In other words, in this paragraph I have described much of current American church life.

So, what, then is Holy Tradition? Well, we Orthodox say that it is the same faith which Christ taught to the Apostles, and which they gave to their disciples. It was preserved in the Church. But, wait, you just said to us that many customs change and have changed. What then is Holy Tradition? Well, I had a good liturgical professor who pointed out that every decision of an ecumenical council, whether dogmatic or disciplinary was introduced by words similar to those found in Acts 15, that is, it seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit, with the addition of a phrase about being in accord the the teaching of the Fathers. In spite of that, while no dogmatic decision has ever been changed, some of the disciplinary canons were changed by the very next council! So what is Holy Tradition? And what does all this have to do with the Church being both infallible and imperfect?

===MORE TO COME===