Official Definitions

The church’s website defines ordinance¹¹ https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/ordinances as

an ordinance is a sacred, formal act or ceremony performed by the authority of the priesthood.

The Random House Webster’s unabridged dictionary (2001 printing) defines ordinance as

1. an authoritative rule or law; a decree or command.
2. a public injunction or regulation
3. something believed to have been ordained, as by a deity or destiny
4. Eccles.
   1. an established rite or ceremony;
   2. a sacrament
   3. the communion

I have other dictionaries²² 3 others with an entry for ordinance and 11 without, in addition to online dictionaries but they don’t add much more to Webster’s definition.

A common use I find outside of church is city ordinances, which are somewhat arbitrary laws with the goal of establishing order rather than prohibiting harm; things like no parking zones and times of day when noise is limited to specific levels.

Overall, I’ll cluster these into two types:

• a statute (Webster’s 1–3 and city ordinances)
• a rite (Webster’s 4 and the church’s)

Use in canon

The church’s canon consists of the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. Between these, ordinance appears in 96 verses. The vast majority of these are one or another form of statute; for example

• A statute establishing in perpetuity, as Exodus 12:17, which says of the Passover, therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.
• A statute clarifying how something should be done, as Exodus 12:43, which says This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof.
• A broadening synonym for another statute-like word, as Exodus 15:25 there he made for them a statute and an ordinance.
• A reference to how things are done, as Leviticus 18:3 after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.
• A synonym for commandment, as Leviticus 18:30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs.
• A synonym for law of nature, as Jeremiah 31:35 the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night.

Every one of the uses of ordinance in the Old Testament, New Testament, and Book of Mormon are of this statute form, with the possible exception of Alma 13 which speaks of people being ordained with a holy ordinance, terminology that elsewhere would apply to laws, not people. Alma 13 can be read either as this being a rite, or as this being a statute imposing structure through people’s roles.

The Doctrine and Covenants initially uses ordinance just as the other scriptures, referring to ordinances as things to be obeyed. But in 1833, through most of the rest of the Doctrine and Covenants, we start seeing references to ordinance as a rite:

• Section 88 refers to the ordinance of the washing of feet in a context where it does not seem to be a statute.
• Section 107 refers to administering outward ordinances in a context that is separate from giving or judging obedience to commandments.
• Sections 121 and 124 refer to the ordinances of mine house and the ordinance of baptizing for the dead.
• Section 124 refers to people being ordained to offices in the church as this ordinance.
• Section 128 refers to the ordinance of baptism by water.

The use of rite-style ordinance in the post-1833 Doctrine and Covenants does not preclude use of statute-style ordinance, sometimes with both in the same section as in 128 which refers to answer the ordinance and conforming to the ordinance as well as the ordinance of baptism by water. This split use is also found in the Articles of Faith in the Pearl of Great Price, with the third article referring to obeying ordinances while the fourth lists rites under the name of ordinances. Section 138, given a century after the other sections of the Doctrine and Covenants, also uses both definitions, referring to boththe performance of ordinances” (rites) and obedience to the ordinances (statutes).

One passage of interest is section 84:19–22 which has the ambiguous wording and chronologically sits after the clearly-statute passages but before the clearly-rite passages

And this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God. Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest. And without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh; for without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live.

If this appeared elsewhere in the Doctrine and Covenants its meaning could be interpolated as either a statute (like the passages before it) or a rite (like most passages after it), but because it is in between it can be read either way.

Etymological Hypothesis

Here’s my best guess as to how the word ordinance evolved in church usage. It’s informed guess-work and likely incorrect.

Originally, ordinance meant what it means outside of ecclesiastical circles: a statute/regulation/law/commandment intended to provide order.

Ordain referred to establishing an ordinance, but gained special meaning when a standing ordinance required specific people have special roles because placing people in those roles had to be frequently repeated, causing ordain to usually refer to it is ordained that this person shall have this role. Because placing people in a role was typically presented like a rite, and ordinance still meant the thing the ordaining created, ordinance gained a rite-adjacent meaning.

Many ordinances clarified how to observe rites, clear back to the first use of ordinance in the Old Testament, helping the statue and rite ideas be seen as related. In 1833 as the church was starting to explore the additional rites of the temple, ordinance was adopted as a useful shorthand for both the rite itself and the rules about how it ought to be administered.

I do not know if the 1832 use in section 84 intended the old statute definition or the new rite definition, as it sits in the transitional period of word use, but personally find value in both readings.