Articles - From the Vicar

The government department headed by the Lord Chancellor, which oversees the administration of justice in England and Wales, has recently issued a consultation paper on court dress. Inevitably, perhaps, it is the questions of wigs that has caused most interest: should barristers and judges continue to wear them, or are wigs simply anachronistic and not consonant with the interests of court users? I don’t propose to enter the lists for or against wigs in court, but the debate has caused me to reflect on the wider issue of ‘tradition’ and how that particularly slippery word needs to be distinguished from individual ‘traditions’.

In Christian theology the word ‘tradition’ has a particular, almost technical meaning: broadly speaking it relates to the teaching and practice of the Church derived from scripture, as distinct from the words of scripture themselves. Thus baptism and regular celebration of the eucharist are part of the tradition of the Church, as are the Creed and authorised public ministry among the faithful. Alongside (but not to be confused with) ‘tradition’ may be set the characteristic ‘traditions’ of particular denominations. Sometimes we can assume that these traditions are older than they actually are: hymn singing in the Church of England was frowned upon as dangerously non-conformist until the late eighteenth century; candles of any sort, along with robed choirs, were considered dangerously popish until the latter part of the nineteenth century.

In the same way that the legal profession is currently considering one of its traditions – the wearing of wigs – perhaps Christians of all denominations should be willing, from time to time, to look critically at their own traditions and ask if they continue to serve the wider purposes of the teaching and proclamation of the Gospel that are at the heart of the Christian tradition.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay