Define "traditional" and "liberal"

[Agabus]

In recent weeks, I have seen the terms “liberal” and “traditional” as specifically relates to the practice of contemporary Orthodoxy thrown around quite a bit on these forums, both by posters I respect and those I – uh – enjoy reading.

Such terms in their modern context are by their nature amorphous and subject to personal interpretation; I realize these words have dictionary definitions, but very few peo-ple actually stick to technical meanings in the discourse of the day. This is, after all, an open forum, and not a debate club.

Likewise, I have observed that often what people from one region or another define as traditional or liberal may well differ.
So, in order to better establish a baseline for what a given poster means when they use such words, what are your definitions of those words?

And, for the heck of it, if you feel like it you could also define “renovationist” and “ecumenist.”

Again, I am not looking for a board consensus, only for what you as a given poster mean when you use those terms.

[Manalive]

Traditional- In keeping with the Faith of the Fathers.
Liberal- Outside the norm, practices that have not been generally used by the Orthodox.
Renovationist - Deliberate action to change, revise, water down, or alter what has been taught by the Fathers to fit their worldview.
Ecumenist - Someone who believes: "everyone (denomination) has equal claim to being in the Church. We should band together, blend things in a bit, and be one" or one who thinks the Orthodox should give some leway to Christian communities so we can become one church. There is already One Church.

That's usually what I mean when I throw those words around haphazardly-- being a reactionary, Tradionalist, hyperdox Herman, little church on the prairie, conservative.

[orthonorm]

As a Priest I know says: which tradition?

I doubt you are going to find any large group of non-traditionalist Orthodox. But everyone is always begging the question when they claim to be holding to tradition and claiming others are not doing so, unless they are willing to give a rather lengthy and sophisticated explication of their understanding of tradition, which I rarely see.

People might think such discussions are primarily of interest in places like this, but the question of what is tradition is certainly a point of contention within some dioceses within some jurisdictions.

Thankfully, most of these disputes while important probably are not points of crises.

For example, moving a Festal DL to be celebrated the eve of the Feast as a Vesperal Liturgy to increase the chance of more parishioners being able to attend, OK or not?

There are larger issues to be sure, but I am almost always interested in the issues which crop up such as the above and when people point to "tradition" to argue for or against them.

  

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