Ordinary time

We call this “Ordinary time” in church terms – there are no high days or holidays, nothing really until we’re almost at Advent. Sunday after Sunday, week after week, just being “ordinary”.

The dictionary definition is “with no special or distinctive features: normal: commonplace: standard” and in churches it’s the time when Pentecost has finished and there are no times of “running around like a headless chicken trying to get things organised for the special event” until the beginning of Advent.

I think, for us, it’s not ordinary at all – simply a time when we are free to be “church”, to do what we do without distractions. As lovely as the “special times” are – I totally love Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, the whole thing – it’s very hard work to fit all the organisation of these events around the stuff we do all the time. For some people, Ordinary time is a time when they can focus on study or embark on a project, but Ordinary time, for me, is a time of “getting on with it”. It means I can put all my efforts into working with the groups in and around the church, without having to think about the next big event.

Obviously, in St Columba’s – we do very special Ordinary Time! Recently we had the most amazing Harvest and Messy Harvest. We’ve had Busy Bees in the summer holidays, which was such fun! We’ve begun a new mother and child group, held a Macmillan coffee morning, Scouts and Guides are meeting every week just like before the pandemic. The friendship group is meeting every week again and has got bigger! We have a new “Craft and Chat” group that is doing very well, and we are providing children’s half term activities in October. All this along with getting our roof fixed and starting work on the new kitchen! (maybe I need Advent just to get my breath back!)

Ordinary time? bring it on!

Take very good care of yourselves
Shalom

Ann