What does tradition mean in the ecumenical movement of the Church?²⁷⁵

The answer

As theologians today explore the ecumenical movement that strives to attain the global unity of the Church, they face this question: What is the true tradition received by the Church, whose principles can guide her life everywhere in the whole world? If we return to the apostolic age, we find “many local church traditions” reflecting a variety of cultures. However, all these traditions are bound together by one mind, the mind of Christ; one spirit, the Spirit of the Lord; and one aim, our salvation.

For this reason, the bishops of Alexandria did not hesitate to participate with the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Jerusalem, in one service and on one altar, even if they differ in the details of their rites and traditions. For all of them received a single form of worship, in one spirit and one Tradition.

So did all the apostles live in one open spirit of preaching. “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more” (1 Cor. 9:19). When St. Mark preached in Egypt, he spoke about the One Christ. The Egyptians worshiped through their culture but in true apostolic spirit, and with the same spirit of worship as other bishoprics. For instance, the Coptic hymns differ from the Syrian and Latin ones … but all have the quiet and meek spirit, the spirit of the new heavenly hymn, reflecting the deepest true dogmatic and spiritual concepts and teachings.

The Lights in the House of the Lord are another example. All the apostolic Churches in the world use lights during worship by day and by night, especially during the reading of the Gospel. This is the spirit of tradition, which declares that “Christ is the Light of the world.” However, Egyptian art emerged in the crafting of their oil lamps —kanadeel — peculiar to the Coptic Church, while the Syrians, Latins, Greeks, etc., embody their own artistic traditions in the particular styles of their own lamps.

Thus, while all who are called Christians across the world share a unity of faith and preserve the true, living tradition, every local church expresses this one faith through her own language, her liturgical rites, hymns, sacred clerical vestments, etc., without losing the unity of faith. The local character of Churches does not obscure the character of the Universal Church. In other words, the differences between traditions, in detail and not in essence, do not stop the realization of the unity of the Universal Church, as long as those traditions have all been established upon the unity of faith and life.

Finally, we conclude this section with the following observations:

a. The Orthodox Church, especially the Church of Alexandria, has more than others,

preserved the holy tradition, both in its details and in its spirit. Perhaps this is because our Church has neither worldly authority nor does it interfere in politics. She lives in her spirituality far from the spirit of the world. The emergence of the monastic movement in Egypt has preserved the reverent, biblical, and ascetic spirit of the tradition of the Church.

b. The unity that exists between the Non-Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches in our time

provides a very practical case study for theologians interested in the ecumenical movement of how the concept of unity can be implemented. While these Churches

differ in some details in their local traditions, they are blessed in sharing a single Faith and a single Tradition. More than once in recent years, the whole world has witnessed the cooperation of the patriarchs, bishops, presbyters, deacons, and laymen from these Churches in one service, partaking in one offering for all.

It behooves these Churches to play an active role with their sisters, the Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches, so that together, the Orthodox Church can devote all her power to evangelism across the whole world.

c. As an Orthodox Church, we need to think seriously about what we can offer to the

world through our evangelism. When a French man, for instance, accepts the Orthodox faith, it is the heart of our mission that we should offer him the opportunity for genuinely Orthodox, patristic, divine worship with one spirit, yet through the culture he finds familiar. In a speech to Orthodox Church leaders in Melbourne in June 1977, H.E. Metropolitan Gregorius, of New Delhi, India said that we must sow the seeds of Orthodoxy in Australian soil, so that an Australian Orthodox tree may grow and flourish.

d. As the Church of Alexandria has opened up to the outside world, and millions of her

faithful have emigrated to the diaspora, the Mother Church needs to re-examine her mission. She must guide and help them to present Orthodox thought to others without deviating from the spirit of tradition or rites. She must never enclose herself within an ethnic community nor make a particular language compulsory; she must bear a worldwide responsibility. This is a very delicate mission, to offer this living tradition to the world with an open heart, while at the same time avoiding deviation or negligence! This is the most important work of theologians today.

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty