Dear Fr. Figpenny, Is tradition and ritual obsolete in this modern age?
No more than placing your hand on your heart during the National anthem, roasting a turkey on Thanksgivings Day, dressing up for Easter, and blowing out candles on a birthday cake! The church has historically cited tradition as one of the fundamental sources of its truth (along with Scripture and reason). But, for decades, perhaps even centuries, the church has been abandoning tradition in favor of modernism and liturgical revisionism for the purpose of adjusting to the norms, requirements, and whims of the society it has been charged to lead. The abandonment of liturgical traditions and the tendencies of rectors and wardens to bend to “local custom,” personal preference, or simplification of ritual, has resulted in confusion, cacophony, and the disappearance of ceremonial consistency that used to bind the church and its faithful together. Now, it is impossible to travel from one church to another with the expectation of finding uniformity of teaching or practice. What you were taught
