The word tradition, which in of itself means a handing down from the past, be it beliefs or customs, is of extreme importance to us as Orthodox Christians. How so?
The following will attempt to answer this...
In Holy Scripture we read "stand firm and hold fast to the traditions you have learned from us by word or letter" (2 Thessalonians 2:15. "The tradition which I handed on to you came to me from the Lord Himself" (1 Corinthians 11:23). "I praise you, brethren, that you always remember me, and keep the traditions as I delivered them to you" (1Corinthians 11:2).
The fathers of the church have said this concerning tradition...
" Of the beliefs and doctrines preserved in the Church, certain ones we have from written instruction, and certain ones we have received from the Apostolic Tradition, handed down in secret. Both the one and the other have one and the same authority for piety, and no one who is even the least informed in the decrees of the Church will contradict this. For if we dare to overthrow the unwritten customs as if they did have great importance, we shall thereby imperceptively do harm to the Gospel in its most important points. And even more, we shall be left with the empty name of the Apostolic preaching without content"
"If one tenet of Catholic (universal) dogma were renounced, another, then another, and finally one after the other would be abandoned, first by custom then by right.... On the other hand, once there is a beginning of mixing the new with the old, foreign ideas with genuine, and profane elements with sacred, this habit will creep in everywhere, without check. At the end nothing in the Church will be left untouched, unimpaired, unhurt, and unstained....The Church of Christ, zealous and cautious guardian of the dogma deposited with it, never changes any phase of them. It does not diminish them or add to them; it neither trims what seems necessary nor grafts things superfluous; it neither gives up its own nor usurps what does not belong to it. But it devotes all its diligence to one aim: to treat tradition faithfully and wisely; to nurse and polish what from old times may have remained unshaped and unfinished; to consolidate and to strengthen what was already clear and plain; and to guard what already was confirmed and defined.".
A comment was heard from a man who was not Orthodox, who was talking to another Orthodox priest in my presence. He stated that " I've read the writings of the early church and they spent the first four or five centuries just trying to figure out who God was!" To this the priest replied "my friend your perception is a little mistaken the fathers of the church where defending the "Faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3) from innovations and teachings that where contrary to what had been handed down from their instructors, continuing back to the Apostles and our Lord Himself. The Fathers of the councils only made clear "that which was believed by all, at all times, throughout all the world."
"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism,"(Eph 4:4;5)
Throughout the entire history of the Church we see this same theme, this golden thread, or rather chain as one writer put it, unifying and linking us with our past. For the countless multitudes of all those who suffered and where persecuted for the Orthodox faith knew that only the purity of the faith will save, only the fullness, not a dilution. They understood the words of the Apostle Peter when he said that "We have not followed cunningly devised fables" and they knew that the Church had not concocted an arbitrary approach based on the philosophies of the past, designed to control men for earthly gain, or some Gnostic idea of union with the infinite. But rather they understood our Faith to be the revelation of the One True God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and the Church to be the living manifestation of the Holy Spirit's influence on the Apostles, and their successors. To put it more succinctly: "the breathing of the Holy Spirit" as described by Saint John of Kronstadt. And they perceived the power in this teaching that was able to restore to them the union with their Creator which was lost by the sin of Adam and Eve. This sober, humble understanding can be seen also in the conversion of ancient Russia. When the people of Rus accepted Christianity they embraced the full faith complete with the "flavour" of Byzantium. This is evident in the chanting, iconography, and the fact that Russia did not have Russian bishops for a few hundred years, for the reason of the spiritual immaturity of the people at that time. It is clear from this example that they accepted the fullness of the faith, and did not take an attitude of "pick and choose" of those things which they did not deem to be suitable for there times or character. But rather as was stated they conformed themselves to Christ and not Christ to themselves.
