I like the distinctions Standish draws here. Blindly following "tradition" or trends simply will not serve. We need living traditions after all: speaking to the present, connecting with the past, and pointing towards the future.

Wither or Whither?

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Norah, exactly.

Father Richard is so right. Neither blindly following "tradition" nor trends will do.

Jaroslav Pelikan summed it up nicely: "Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living." Tradition isn't so much a static object as a living process -- the handing down (Latin "tradere," to hand down) of Christian faith, spirituality and experience from one generation to the next. As such, it may be expressed in new ways from generation to generation, so to be understood and celebrated by each, but it always flows in a continuum from one to the next. Tradition reminds us that we walk not alone in terra incognita, but in the footsteps of holy witnesses to Christ down through the ages, from Mary the Virgin and the apostles to the saintly women and men of today, in a way that trendiness cannot capture.

Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a treasure chest out of which come things "both old and new" (Matthew 13:52). One of the strengths of the Episcopal Church is that it doesn't forget that.

(And Norah is right: it should be "Whither traditions?" Tradition doesn't wither -- it's living, alive and brings forth new fruit!)

It is a pleasure to read so many cogent comments. At times I feel like a relic of the very distant past when I say that it DOES matter which candles are lighted first and it IS important to have traditional music of a liturgical nature during the service.

At the same time, I welcome the interval surrounding the Peace during a service. Other traditionalists object that milling about in the aisles breaks the flow of the service. The exchanges feed basic human needs.

Can you folks ever learn to spell? Is there a proofreader there?

You now have the most important site in Episcopal Land, but it gets more illiterate every day.

I am a lousy typist and a middling proofreader. But if I had meant whither, rather than wither, I would have changed the spelling when Norah first called it to the reader's attention. Not everyone enjoys puns, but they are not evidence of illiteracy.

Jim, I got it, and I thought it was humorous.

But then, I am also noted for punning.

Susan Forsburg

We need to remember to play nice ... Jim used a pun - quite a good one, actually - that I'm going to use in my sermon on Sunday. So thank you, Jim - always helps to have the ideas pouring in.

The seven last words before death: "We've never done it that way before."

But what are the basics and what are the accretions. Wasn't BCP '79 designed to get us back to basics? Of course even it contains some big compromises like Rite(s) I.

Actually, the great weakness of the article is a lack of definition concerning what is foundational and what is accretion. Indeed, I think it's quite telling that the term 'development' is lacking; all change from some (undefined) theoretically pristine original is 'accretion'...

I've argued on these pages before that the real litmus test ought to be this: what proclaims the Gospel best in this time and place?

However, maybe even paradoxically, the best way to answer the question is to understand what we have done--where the Spirit has ed us--in the past.

The real tragedy, though, is that most people don't take the time to learn about the riches of our heritage and liturgy before tossing them out for what they think is "relevant."

Jim, thank you for the fine example of Christian charity in action in your response to Josh. And yes, as you indicated, spelling DOES matter, as do good manners.