Who reads in your church?
As a priest who regularly provides cover in a range of churches round our diocese, I often find myself asking people: “How do you do it here?” The almost inevitable answer is a variation on “Just the normal way.” The problem is there are almost as many normal ways as there are churches. One of those points where there is considerable variation is the question of who reads which reading. As always, perceptive humour from the excellent Dave Walker at CartoonChurch . The image is © Dave Walker and Cartoon Church and is used by kind permission of the artist. These differences are mainly focussed on the reading of the Gospel, where Roman Catholic, Anglican and other Protestant traditions differ. Before I get to the differences, I start with what they should all have in common, but all too often don’t. The chief commonality should be that those who read do so clearly, audibly, and in a way which allows the listener to grasp the meaning of the reading. People complain fairly quickl...