Where the Term “Ordinary Time” Comes From

The term "Ordinary Time" is one of the optional terms The United Methodist Book of Worship(see page 224) gives to two periods of the Christian Year. Following the great festal seasons of Christmas and Easter is a period called "Season after . . . ."

The term "Ordinary Time" does not mean boring, nothing new, or featureless. Laurence Hull Stookey in Calendar: Christ's Time for the Church (Abingdon, 1996) explains that the term "ordinary" as used in the Christian calendar comes from the way the Sundays outside Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter are numbered with ordinal numbers (first, second, third) instead of cardinal numbers (one, two, three). In Ordinary Time, the Sundays are designated as First Sunday after Pentecost, Second . . ., Third . . .and so on.