Ordinary Time

 In the Episcopal Church, it is normal to refer to the Sundays after Epiphany and the Sundays after Pentecost as Ordinary Time.  These two Church "seasons" are noted visually by the use of green altar hangings and green clergy vestments.

Since we just celebrated Pentecost, we are in Ordinary Time, however...for well over a year there has not been ordinary times in our daily lives.  In fact, Nothing has been ordinary.  We have had to and still must change the way we do almost everything in our lives.

We have had to isolate ourselves; for some this might not be a change, but for most, social interaction is a basic function in our lives.  When we did not completely isolate, we have had to limit the number of others that we can associate with.  We have been forced to, dare I say it,  CHANGE...change how we do things, and that has included worship.  

As a Deacon, I have some specific liturgical duties.  They are important and help define the "servant ministry" of the Diaconate, through actions.  Until very recently, most of the liturgical duties for Deacons were suspended in our Diocese.  While I understand why this was necessary, it was and still is troubling to me.  

There is an old saying that goes "Actions speak louder than words".  In our liturgy, there are specific actions that are carried out by the Priest, the Deacon, the Acolytes, the Lay Readers and the Lay Eucharistic Ministers.  The Priest can do it all, the Deacon can do all of the non-Priestly specific duties and the Acolytes, Lay Readers and the Lay Eucharistic Ministers are limited to their specific duties.  In addition, prior to and after the services the members of the Altar Guild have specific roles to play in preparing for the service and cleaning up after the service.

Due to Covid-19, what had been ordinary could not safely continue.  For periods of time when we had little or no information, we had to completely stop "in-person" worship in our Church building.  As we began to learn more about the pandemic, very specific guidelines were developed in order to come back into our building safely for worship.  As vaccines were developed and proven to be safe and effective, we were able to reopen with very specific limitations.

As I write this, we as a worship community are about institute some new guidelines for worship and building useage.  All these "changes" will be developed by the Clergy and Mission Committee following the recommendations developed by the Diocese.  Will we be "back to business as usual?", will it be exactly the same?, I don't know for sure, but my heart tells me that we will have a new Ordinary...