Ordinary Season Need Not be Ordinary

The church is right in the midst of Ordinary Time, a period on the liturgical calendar between the Spirit’s fire of Pentecost and the solemn expectancy of Advent.

Late summer can especially be a time when worship  has slowed, as has church life.  In a sense, the church may have sunk into the doldrums.

But there is a remedy for that, wrote Alfred Fedak in the Christian Reformed Church’s Reformed Worship, a periodical offering resources for planning and leading worship.

"This designation (of Ordinary Time) is not meant to imply that these weeks represent an unimportant part of the Christian year. In fact, quite the opposite is true.”

This season can be a valuable reminder that the Christian life is an everyday vocation, he writes, and can be used in various ways to grow in faith by acknowledging significance “not reserved simply for special occasions.”

With this in mind, the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship recently set up a new showcase, highlighting ways in which churches can use Ordinary time — and particularly the end of summer —  as a way to move into a new season of church life.

In September, for instance, the new school year and a new year of church ministries and activities are worth remembering, celebrating and dedicating in worship.

Other themes and occasions for communal worship in September include re-gathering after the summer, celebrating the beauty of creation in autumn, and remembering the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Included in the Sept. 11 resources is Abana Alathi Fi Ssama, the Lord’s Prayer in Arabic.

The institute is also reminding congregations that several Old Testament holidays will be commemorated in coming weeks starting with the festival of Rosh Hashanah which celebrates the Jewish new year. It runs Sept. 24-26.

This will be followed on Oct. 3-4 by Yom Kippur, considered by members of the Jewish faith to be the holiest day of the year. Referred to as the Day of Atonement, this is when people purify and cleanse themselves from their sins.

Then, on Oct. 6-15, there will be Sukkot, the Feast of the Tabernacles that marks the 40 years people in the Old Testament spent in the desert before entering the land promised to them by God.

The eight-day celebration of light known as Chanukah begins on sunset of Tuesday, Dec. 16.

For more information and worship suggestions on these celebrations, visit Old Testament holidays on the institute website.