Being an American Protestant Christian I've never heard the term ordinary time in my life. Whether Lewis had or not, I have no idea. 

But I'm FULLY on board with your second suggestion @icarus, and I love the idea. I'm wondering very much (and agree with you) that this might be Ms. Gerwig's "North Star" that she talked about in previous interviews. If that's the case, the idea of having the overarching theme of MN being 'faced with the choice of a blessed, normal life, vs a cursed immortality, what would you choose? ' that's..... not wrong. 

There's been so much controversy lately of rumored changes and a couple confirmed changes, but for me, the theme of the story is SO much more important to nail than the details (excluding Aslan being female ). 

I'm probably reading way too much into this.  

Posted by: @fantasia

Being an American Protestant Christian I've never heard the term ordinary time in my life. Whether Lewis had or not, I have no idea. 

The Liturgical calendar is followed by The Catholic Church, The Anglican Church (I believe C.S. Lewis was a high Anglican), Lutherans and Methodists.  (I actually first encountered the Liturgical Calendar in a Baptist Congregation because the Worship leader loved it as a guide to ensure that a variety of theological focuses occurred in the Worship services over the course of the year.)  I now attend an Anglican Church (I think very-low Anglican) and can confirm they follow the Liturgical Calendar also.

Here is a link if you are interested - and quite okay if you have better things to do with your time  🙂 (to be honest, I didn't read the article - the pie chart at the start kind of gives you the general idea in a single picture) Description of Liturgical Calendar

I agree with you that the second reference (Digory's words at the climatic moment in the story) is far more intriguing though.  This shows a lot of insight for the book and a true respect for it.  This is really encouraging!  Thanks @icarus for sharing!

You know, we've seen a few times from Greta Gerwig in early pre-production where she's said little things which really suggest she has a deep knowledge of not only the Narnia stories, but also of C.S. Lewis' other work.

And I think a detail such as this Working Title, even if only minor, really suggests to me that she's gone through the text in a super meticulous fashion. Even the 1950s time jump is most logically explained by her taking a very literal interpretation of the first line of text in the book.

Therefore, perhaps my biggest criticism of the movie is going to end up being that GG colossally over-thought things, and that maybe she should have tried to just do a more straightforward re-telling. But I think maybe aside from the Meyrl rumours, nothing about the project so far says she doesn't fundamentally get the stories, and absolutely nothing suggests to me that she's approaching the story from a place of indifference or cynicism.

I know that's a lot to infer from just a few tiny clues, but overall I just get the sense that Greta is going to offer us a more text-based literature interpretation of the book, offering a version of the story that is in line with Lewis' perspective as an author writing the stories, rather than necessarily a strict adherence to the literal events of the story, which will stand in somewhat stark contrast to Andrew Adamson's approach of making the movies in line with his own childhood interpretation of the stories (the big battles, the heightened tension, the more schematic sense of.lore and mythology etc) and the overall general vibes.

Very interesting thoughts here. I do like it when these titles have a deeper significance to them like that. 🙂

Not only has it those links, but also it works as if saying, this filming we're doing in London, and elsewhere in England, is in our 'ordinary time', whereas any Narnia scenes would be working on unordinary time. Which only works if they told people a different project title at those times, I realise... Yet still it's an interesting thought for a more direct/obvious interpretation, as well(?)

"Ordinary time" is definitely an Anglican liturgical term, and C.S. Lewis was definitely an Anglican, so I don't think that's a coincidence at all when it comes to Gerwig's awareness of the faith background of the stories.

It's not a term that's used outside the Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and one or two other denominations, as a couple of others here have indicated, which makes me much more confident that Gerwig really is considering these things deeply. I wouldn't have known it myself if I hadn't attended a few Church of England services, seen the term "The [Xth] Sunday in Ordinary Time" in the service booklet, and asked an Anglican friend what it meant. But yes, for those "in the know", it does resonate deeply. In fact, that's the first association that came into my head when I saw the opening post here — I'd forgotten the exact wording of Digory's "I'd rather live an ordinary time..." retort to Jadis.

Well, this has got my hopes up quite a bit further that the essential themes and messages of the story may remain intact in this film, even if the this-world setting and some aspects of the action are different from the books! 

@davidd

Lewis described himself as very ordinary Anglican, not High (which is almost Catholic in some places).  

When we initially heard about Ordinary Time, I tried to find a connection to C.S. Lewis online, but couldn't find anything he said directly... I'm disappointed in myself that I didn't just check the book first  😜 

Great callback @fantasia on Gerwig's North Star comments. I think that really tracks!

This discussion is definitely encouraging, thank you @icarus for starting the thread and pointing out the liturgical calendar connection - as a nondenominational Christian, I've heard of Ordinary Time before but didn't remember what it meant. I'm certain you're right about Gerwig knowing its significance.

Do we know what working titles GG used for her previous films? Just curious as to how significant those may have turned out. I did a quick search for Little Women and Barbie working titles and couldn't find anything.

I've been an Anglican all my life, yet have never heard the term Ordinary Time applied to church. (Only in employment timesheets, as opposed to Overtime).

We traditionally counted our Sundays after major festivals. 1st, 2nd etc, but I'll search my old prayer book when I have a spare moment. 

Posted by: @coracle

I've been an Anglican all my life, yet have never heard the term Ordinary Time applied to church. (Only in employment timesheets, as opposed to Overtime).

Interesting — it may depend on the individual church, and perhaps it's a more common term here in England than in other countries. I certainly never encountered it in Australia, but then I'm not an Anglican. I definitely have seen it used in Church of England services over here.