Contemporary church and tradition

As many of you know, I have recently spent a week on holiday in Rhodes. I always enjoy going to Greece: there are so many ancient and medieval sites to explore. However, what always impresses me most, when I return to Greece, is the Greek Orthodox Church.

Orthodoxy has the same creeds as the Western Church, and yet in many ways it is so very different to the Western Christianity to which Anglicanism belongs. Its vestments, services and church decorations are different to ours. Even the attire of the clergy is so very different. One cannot help but feel that there is an age and depth to Orthodox spirituality that surpasses human reckoning. The rituals of the liturgy have been added to over successive generations, and seem to give a real insight into what earlier generations of Christians believe. When one opens an Orthodox liturgy book, one is suddenly aware that this service is in the language of the New Testament, and so the ancient faith is transmitted to modern day church congregations without any need of translation.

Most remarkable of all is the attitude that the Greek Church has towards church buildings. We build our churches where there are centres of population, but they build their churches on isolated islands and mountain tops, far removed from the cities. Here there is a vestige of the holiness of isolation that drew St Anthony's followers to the wilderness. The Greek Church hopes that its people will go on a serious pilgrimage to seek God, rather than popping round the corner as if the church were a local shop.

Although critics will point to the traditionalism of the Eastern church, and its reluctance to simplify any aspect of its worship life, the remarkable thing about the Greek Church is that it continues to have relevance to many of its people. I was heartened to see how many young people went into church to light a taper and reverence the icons, and take away the holy bread. Certainly it is possible to argue that there are issues on which the Greek Church could be more vocal, but they would probably argue that consciously trying to be 'relevant' to society is a false aim: it is from faithfulness to the God revealed in scripture that relevance springs.

The very visual and tactile nature of traditional Orthodox devotional practice accords well with the way in which our post-modern culture works because it transmits narratives, traditions and values that speak of the mystery of God. The success of Alpha and Emmaus in the West has also shown that what attracts people to church is it distinctive narrative, faith, worship and values. The church's inheritance of beliefs and worship is then something of great worth.

 

I think there is something here for us to learn: it is in faithfulness to God and our tradition that our relevance is to be found. Many over hasty attempts at modernisation have diminished the church rather than built it up and, when certain things are stripped away, a good deal of Christian tradition can be lost. This is not an argument for complacent conservatism: no church should sit where it is and ignore the developments in society around it. However, we should be aware that not all change is necessarily for the good, and we need to evaluate the benefits and disadvantages of change with care.