Brothers and sisters in Christ,

Over the last year and a half our Vision Committee has engaged our congregation in various group discussions. The committee has worked hard to listen and gather the thoughts and feelings from our community of what is important to you. Through this process, the committee deciphered the information received to produce a Mission Statement (please click here to see the complete mission statement) which reflects the core values of our community’s desire to remain faithful to our past while also moving forward guided by our Holy Tradition. As an Orthodox Community, everything we do is guided by the Holy Tradition of our Church. Some of you may be wondering what exactly is meant by Holy Tradition. To help clarify this matter, I would like to share a wonderful sermon that Fr. Dean gave on this topic earlier this spring.

With love in Christ,
Fr. Demetrios Gardikes, Economos
Cathedral Dean

Why Capitalization Matters

My barber is a Protestant Pastor. While cutting my hair he often asks me what I think is distinctive about Orthodoxy. I almost always point to the timelessness of our Church, to “its determination to remain loyal to the past…(in)…living continuity with the Church of the ancient times.” (Ware) My answer isn’t anything new. In the Second book of Thessalonians the people of the early Church were exhorted to “stand firm and hold to the traditions which (they) were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter…” Likewise, we are called to continue to hold fast to the Holy Tradition of the Church. Or, as Metropolitan Kalistos Ware reiterates, we are to “preserve the Doctrine of the Lord uncorrupted, and firmly adhering to the Faith He delivered us…(keeping) it free from blemish and diminution…neither adding anything, nor taking anything from it.”

Orthodox Christians often speak of Tradition, but they also refer to tradition. The difference is that sometimes, no matter where the word falls in the sentence, the word tradition has a capital T, and sometimes it does not.

What is Holy Tradition?

Tradition can mean an opinion, a custom, even a belief that is handed down through the ages. Christian Tradition (with a capital T) could be called the Faith as imparted to the Apostles by Christ, and handed down from generation to generation. St. Paul emphasizes in First Corinthians that, “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” But, to an Orthodox Christian, Holy Tradition (that is with a capital T) includes more.

“Capital T” Tradition is the mind of the Church, guiding us to a deeper understanding and relationship with Christ and His Church. It means the books of the Bible, the Creed, the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, the Holy Canons, all of the Divine Services, and our whole system of doctrine, Ecclesiastical governance, worship and spirituality. In the spirit of St. Paul’s words, it is that which has been taught “whether by word of mouth or by letter…” That leaves us with quite a bit of information to sort through, and it is important to remember that it is all interconnected.

The Bible

Preeminent within Holy Tradition is the Bible, which Metropolitan Kalistos Ware calls “the supreme expression of God’s revelation to the human race.” The Book itself is an Icon of Christ, and as such we venerate and carry it in processions. We are people of the Book, which means that we maintain a relationship with the Bible writings. Despite its place of primacy, the Bible still must be seen as existing within and as a part of Holy Tradition. The Bible is dense and complicated, and we need the fullness of Holy Tradition to guide us through it. As the Ethiopian Eunuch replied to Philip in the Acts of the Apostles, “How can I understand what I am reading unless someone guides me?” That “someone” is the fullness Holy Tradition.

The Creed

Another way that Holy Tradition guides us in our understanding is through the Creed. There are many creeds out there, and some of them sound very similar to our own. But there is a reason that the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, which is the most important statement ever issued by an Ecumenical Council, is read at every Liturgy, and also at several of the daily services. The Creed outlines our core Dogmatic beliefs as Orthodox Christians, and was ratified by an Ecumenical Council of the Church. If we were to come face to face with an inquirer and had nothing else to give them, we could hand him the Creed and know we have given him an accurate outline of Orthodox Dogma. From the Creed we know that we believe in the Holy Trinity. Because we profess the Trinity, Orthodox Christians are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a Tradition rooted in our Lord’s own words in the book of Matthew. We might take this for granted, but it is not exclusive to all Christian communities. Some baptize only in the name of Jesus.

It is important to remember that all facets of Holy Tradition are Holy, but there is still a hierarchy within Tradition. While the Bible and Creed are first and foremost, there are others facets such as the Divine Services and the writing of the Fathers.

The Divine Services

Of all the Services, most of us are probably familiar with the Divine Liturgy. Through the Liturgy, we are transported out of time as we know it into a preview of the Kingdom to come. We enter into Communion with God through the reception of the Eucharist, a Tradition leading back to the earliest gatherings of Christians. Even the use of bread and wine is rooted in Tradition. We know from the Gospel that Christ took bread and wine at the last supper, blessed it, gave thanks, and distributed it to His Apostles and Disciples. This Tradition was preserved by the early Christians. As was noted by Roman Governor Pliny in his letter to the Roman Emperor in the year 112 AD, the Christians “gather on the appointed day of the week…sing hymns antiphonally…and (eat) food.” Other services allow us time to pray for ourselves and the entire world, a different type of communion with God, while sanctifying the time we are in. In other words, when we pray for ourselves and others during Matins, we are doing it from 8:15 to 9:30 in the morning every Sunday. The Divine Liturgy takes place out of space and time in an even deeper encounter with God.

The texts of our Services and the hymnography of the Church are important. Holy Tradition tells us that what we say in worship is what we Dogmatically believe. It shouldn’t be surprising that if one was to highlight all the Biblical texts in our Divine Services, then end result would be an almost entirely yellow book of paper. The Divine Liturgy alone contains 98 quotes from the Old Testament and 114 from the New Testament (P. Evdokimov). In the cycle of daily services, the entire Psalter is recited each week through Matins and Vespers. The reading of the Gospel is the highpoint of Matins, and each Divine Liturgy has a specifically assigned Gospel and Epistle reading. Even the style of our services is part of Holy Tradition. For instance, we believe firmly in the use of icons, candles and incense, but some other Christians do not.

Hymnography

We know that what we express in worship is what we believe, and so special attention should be given to the music of our Holy Tradition. Through the texts of our hymnography, Dogmatic truths are passed on. With rare exceptions, the Sunday Matins service includes the reading of a Resurrectional Gospel pericope. The reading is then expounded upon by the chanting of the Resurrectional Doxasticon just before the end of the service. Earlier in the service, we chant the “Resurrectional Evlogytaria”, which proclaim that Christ rose from the dead, and that the empty tomb was found by the Myrrh Bearing Women who, as the hymn states, were told to “see form (themselves) and understand that the Savior has arisen from the sepulcher.”

Hymnography also expounds upon the lives of the Saints. During the “Praises” of Matins we hear of the martyrs who “through their courageous contests for Thee, received the prize of incorruption and Life from Christ our immortal God.” This particular section of the service also explains whatever Feast the Church is preparing for or celebrating, offering a catechetical course combined with worship each week. The Tradition of hymnography, which is passed down both by mouth and letter, is part of understanding not only Biblical texts, but the lives of the Saints and the Church Year.

“Small t” traditions

We know that “capital T” traditions include thing such as the books of the Bible, the Creed, the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, the Holy Canons, and the Divine Services. These “capital T Traditions” are Doctrinal and or Dogmatic, but there are also “small t traditions” that are integral to our lives as Orthodox Christians.

For instance, the Church tells us that we must do Liturgy on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. Paraklesis is one of the many beautiful services offered outside of the Liturgy, but the Church does not prescribe a specific day of the week when it should be done outside of August 1-14. For example, Chanting Paraklesis on a given night of the week, perhaps Monday’s around 6 PM, is a “small t” tradition.

Each year at the end of the Resurrection Liturgy the Priests have the joy of handing out red Easter eggs to the faithful. We know those eggs are red to remind us that Christ died on the Cross. But what if one year red dye was not available? What if the eggs were green instead? Or what if there were no eggs available? We could still celebrate the fullness of the Liturgy within the Dogmatic understanding of our faith even with that one aspect missing. We can also consider the icons of our Cathedral. We are blessed with beautiful mosaic icons. In another parish the local custom might be to have icons that are oil painted. Regardless of what they are made out of, icons facilitate a deeper connection with the Saint depicted. These “small t” traditions such as eggs or painting style are important. They contribute to the fullness of our Orthodox lives and are historically rooted, but are not the same as the “capital T” traditions that are considered Dogmas and Doctrines.

Conclusion

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t wear glasses. My lenses aren’t exactly bottle caps. Without them I can see things, but everything is hazy and I can’t really tell how far ahead anything is. Similarly, without the lenses of Holy Tradition, one could likely still find God. Without Holy Tradition one can be a Christian of another confession. But the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church points us towards a fuller understanding of and closer relationship with God, rooted in the teachings of the Church, dating back to the time of the Apostles and preserved and protected by the Fathers.

When we talk about being a Faith or a community rooted in and guided by the Holy Tradition of Orthodoxy, we mean that we are a community that holds firm to the Traditions we were taught. We know that not only the way we pray, but any decisions we make or actions we take are based on the teachings of the Church. This Faith Tradition that our community acts upon is not something new that we can alter as we choose, but rather something ancient that will endure to the ages of ages. It is “the Faith of the Apostles…the Faith of Fathers…(the unwavering) Faith of the Orthodox (that has) strengthened the universe…”(7th Ecumenical Council), that we are charged to spread not only throughout our Cathedral, not only throughout Columbus, but throughout the world.