Lay-reader

Lay-reader, in the Anglican Church, is a layman who receives authority to read the lessons or a part of the service. The incumbent can permit any one to read the lessons, but for authority to read the morning or evening prayer a license from the bishop of the diocese is required. The absolution, of course, cannot be read by a lay-reader, nor any part of the communion service, but he may receive permission, especially in connection with missions, to preach, or to read the sermons of others. Readers (lectores, anagnōstai) have existed as an order in the church from at least the 3d century: in the Greek Church they constitute the first, in the Latin Church the second of the minor orders that lead to the priesthood. (The office was anciently a favourite one with well-born youths: Julian, afterwards the Apostate, was in his younger years a reader in the church of Nicomedia.) Their duty at first was only to read (and perhaps to interpret) the lessons; afterwards they were often employed also as bishops' secretaries, and had some other functions assigned to them. The appointment of readers in the Anglican Church received the sanction of the bishops in 1866; but they were not to be ordained.