Friday, June 20, 2025
Welcome to Ordinary Time!
You did it! WOOHOO! You've made it through this church year... all the way from fall "start-up"...through Advent and Christmas... Lent and Easter... Pentecost and Trinity Sunday.
You've made it to "Ordinary Time", from the word ordinal, as in “ordinal numbers”, which tell the rank or position of something (first, second, third, etc). The Sundays after the celebration of Epiphany and Pentecost are called “the [first, second, third, etc] Sunday after Epiphany/Pentecost, so the season is called “Ordinary Time”.
And it does feel ordinary, doesn’t it? After a busy year, filled with lots of special church services, seasons and events, it feels like “ordinary time” in the other sense of the word: normal with no special or distinctive features.
Sometimes, ordinary is the BEST.THING.EVER.
After all, life is often ordinary. We get up, make our tea or coffee, do what needs to be done for the day, return home, rest, and do it all again. Ordinary time, ordinary days, ordinary moments, bring the big moments of our life together into a whole.
Jesus did some of his most amazing teaching while doing quite ordinary things, like eating, walking, even spitting. Jesus’ ministry was actually quite ordinary as he was with people, day in and day out. The extraordinary events of Holy Week and Easter gave new meaning to the ordinary - for Jesus and for us.
The Christian year moves us forward and around in the mystery of our ordinary lives. Our lives change for better and for worse; we encounter grief and joy, challenges and accomplishments; exciting and boring things happen. Sacred seasons come and go, and will come again.
Our lives will be different, maybe in small ways, maybe in significant ways, when we reach our next special season, Advent, when we prepare again for the mystery of Christmas. Until then, in these ordinary days, Jesus accompanies us on our journeys of faith. Some moments will be extraordinary, and many will be ordinary. God will be with us, journeying with us through them all. Day in and day out.
Thanks be to God!
Save These Dates... (webpages, registration and fees are all being developed, more info soon!)
Leading Together: A Conference for Lay Leaders and Ministry Personnel, September 19-20, 2025, in Victoria, BC AND October 17-19, 2025 in Calgary, AB!
Ministry Personnel Retreat (Pacific Mountain Region), September 29 - October 2, 2025 in Naramata, BC
Ministry Personnel Retreat (Chinook Winds Region), February 2-5, 2026 at Sanctum Retreat Centre, Caroline, AB
Decolonization is a Community Act: for church leaders and youth/young adults, March 16-19, 2026, Camp Fircom, Gambier Island, BC
Festival of Faith North, April 17-19, 2026 in Prince George, BC
Hope to connect with you soon…
Michelle
