Green Sundays: Ordinary Time After Pentecost and Trinity Sunday

Encore Post: With the celebration of the Sunday of the Holy Trinity, the liturgy of the church switches themes. From Advent to Pentecost, the focus of all the lessons in all lectionaries focus on the earthly ministry of Jesus. With Holy Trinity, we consider what this means for our life and the life of the Church. The color of all our paraments and vestments is green to reflect growth in our faith in Christ. Together with the Season of Epiphany, Pentecost/Trinity Season is called Ordinary Time.

These Sundays are not called ordinary because there is something routine about them. It comes from the fact that each week in the season is numbered rather than named. It is the tradition of the church that each Sunday between Advent and Pentecost has a unique Latin name. You may have seen these in bulletins. The weeks of ordinary time, however, are numbered by the weeks after Epiphany, Pentecost or Trinity.

There are so many Sundays after Pentecost or Trinity that most lectionaries change the themes twice or more. Most make these changes at the celebration of St. Lawrence Day and the celebration of St. Michael and All Angels (Michaelmas) If your church uses Graduals between the Old Testament and New Testament lessons and/or a thematic alleluia verse, you will notice the shift. The Gradual and the alleluia verse changes.

In some American Lutheran churches, another feature of the liturgy in ordinary time is there is a shorter preface. The preface is the prayer of praise said by the pastor before the Sanctus. In these churches, the pastor goes directly from “that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto You O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty, Everlasting God …” to “therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Your glorious name, evermore praising you and saying…” In the first half of the church year and on special days, they add a proper preface to it, related to the day itself.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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