Beliefs and Tradition
Why does the Church rely on Holy Tradition?
The Church relies on Holy Tradition because the apostolic faith was received as a living life before it was collected into a printed Bible. Holy Tradition is the Church's received life of worship, doctrine, Scripture, sacraments, prayer, and holiness handed down from the apostles.
Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.
Tradition And Scripture Belong Together
Holy Tradition does not compete with Scripture. It is the life of the Church in which Scripture was received, preserved, interpreted, and prayed. The Church reads the Bible inside the same apostolic faith that gave her the Creed, the Liturgy, the Holy Mysteries, the fathers, and the saints.
This is why Coptic Orthodoxy does not treat every reader as a private judge over the faith. The Bible is the word of God, and the Church receives it with reverence inside the worshiping Body of Christ.
What Holy Tradition Includes
Holy Tradition includes the apostolic preaching, the Creed, the Liturgy, the sacramental life, the prayers, the fasts, the feasts, the fathers, the councils received by the Church, the saints, iconography, and spiritual discipline. These are not random customs. They are the Church's memory of how the apostolic faith is lived.
Local customs can change, and not every parish habit has the same authority. Holy Tradition means the received apostolic life of the Church, not every preference that feels old.
Why It Protects Faith
Holy Tradition keeps the Church from inventing Christianity again in every generation. It protects the faithful from novelty, private interpretation, and shallow religion by joining them to the Church's continuous worship and teaching.
- Holy Tradition, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Explanation of Holy Tradition as the received apostolic life of the Church.
- Tradition, Part One, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Doctrine article introducing Holy Tradition as apostolic teaching and life received in the Church.
- Tradition, Part Two, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Doctrine article continuing the explanation of Scripture, Tradition, and the life of the Church.
- Holy Scripture, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Catechetical lecture on Scripture in the Orthodox Church.
Holy Tradition: The apostolic life of the Church handed down in Scripture, worship, doctrine, councils, saints, and sacramental practice.
Sacrament: A visible mystery through which God gives grace to His people. In Coptic usage the sacraments belong to the whole healing life of the Church.
Creed: The Church's shared confession of faith, proclaimed in the Liturgy before the Eucharistic prayer as the faithful stand together in apostolic belief.
Mysteries: The Orthodox name for the sacraments, calling attention to God's grace given through visible rites such as Baptism, Chrismation, Confession, and the Eucharist.