Ordinance, n.
Etymology: [OE. ordenance, OF. ordenance, F. ordonnance. See Ordain, and cf. Ordnance, Ordonnance.]
1. Orderly arrangement; preparation; provision. [Obs.] Spenser. They had made their ordinance Of victual, and of other purveyance. Chaucer.
2. A rule established by authority; a permanent rule of action; a statute, law, regulation, rescript, or accepted usage; an edict or decree; esp., a local law enacted by a municipal government; as, a municipal ordinance. Thou wilt die by God's just ordinance. Shak. By custom and the ordinance of times. Shak. Walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Luke i. 6.
Note: Acts of Parliament are sometimes called ordinances; also, certain colonial laws and certain acts of Congress under Confederation; as, the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River; the colonial ordinance of 1641, or 1647. This word is often used in Scripture in the sense of a law or statute of sovereign power. Ex. xv. 25. Num. x. 8. Ezra iii. 10. Its most frequent application now in the United States is to laws and regulations of municipal corporations. Wharton (Law Dict.).
3. (Eccl.)
4 more senses
An established rite or ceremony.
4. Rank; order; station. [Obs.] Shak.
5. Etym: [See Ordnance.]
Ordnance; cannon. [Obs.] Shak.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for ordinance; he lists it under law, sacrament.
Where he writes about it:
An observance has more than a formal obligation, reaching or approaching a religious sacredness; a stated religious observance, viewed as established by authority, is called an ordinance; viewed as an established custom, it is a rite. — from sacrament
The terms sacrament and ordinance, in the religious sense, are often used interchangeably; the ordinance derives its sacredness from the authority that ordained it, while the sacrament possesses a sacredness due to something in itself, even when viewed simply as a representation or memorial. — from sacrament