Where is our identity? Is it found in millennial march of the church, passing age to age through history, or is it found in the will and feeling of the people gathered?

In seminary I was taught to be wary of tradition. Not the Tradition, mind you, that glorious arc of history that binds us together, particularly in the Anglican Communion. No, I was warned about tradition, the local customs of the congregation. They could be deep set and, regardless of their theological merit, there to stay.

A Traditionalist (big T) and Anglo-Catholic by nature, I was surprised after seminary to be called to an emerging church congregation. Church of the Apostles in Seattle challenged me weekly to question Tradition. I needed reasons for the things I believed, the things I did, and how I led worship. “No we cannot have goldfish shaped crackers and apple juice for communion.” “Yes we do have to have a gospel reading >from< the Bible.” I lost some battles and won others, but I learned important things about piety and ritual. And I learned that tradition (little t) was alive and well. Practices that had only been around for 6 months became “the way we have always done it” and people reacted strongly either for or against.

Thus my new job as a chaplain has been confusing. Working with a small group of students, half of them new this year, I encountered very little tradition. For the most part, they are open to change. Students come and go every year, and it can be hard to find a worship style that reflects who we are as an ongoing community.

Once you step out of the parish setting, thousands of new options open up. How should we arrange the chairs? Should we read from a book or an image projected on the wall?  What songs should we sing? Which prayers should we use? Should we have a sermon or a discussion? In the parish I felt constrained by strong opinions, but college students (with a few notable exceptions) seem less attached. It makes it harder to forge a tradition.

All of this leads me to wonder about who we are as a church—and as the Church. What is the essence of the good news that it makes strangers into friends? How important is the great cloud of witnesses that brought the truth of Jesus Christ through two millennia? I know there won’t be a simple answer, but I delight in the opportunity to explore it with students who are discovering their own place in the church and in the world.

by The Rev. Lucas Mix, Chaplain, University of Arizona

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The Rev. Amy McCreath, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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