In some Christian churches, the Reader is responsible for reading aloud excerpts of the scripture at a liturgy. In early Christian times, the reader was of particular value, given the rarity of literacy.

Roman Catholicism

In the Roman Catholic Church, the reader is known in Latin as a lector and is not permitted to read the gospel during the mass.

In the medieval Catholic church, the lector was a junior-level cleric and one of the four Minor Orders as defined by the Council of Trent. However, as a minor order, the lector was not part of the sacrament of Holy Orders. The lector wore the alb or the surplice.

In 1972 Paul VI reformed the order of lector by making it a lay ministry: "the above-mentioned ministries should no longer be called minor orders; their conferral will not be called ordination, but institution. ... 3. Ministries may be assigned to lay Christians; hence they are no longer to be considered as reserved to candidates for the sacrament of orders. ... 7. In accordance with the ancient tradition of the Church, institution to the ministries of reader and acolyte is reserved to men. ..." From Motu Proprio Ministeria Quaedam.

Before ordination as a deacon, the Code of Canon Law requires them to be instituted as a lector (canon 1035).

A difference between an instituted lector and somone temporarily performing their role is the requirement to wear vestments: "During the celebration of Mass with a congregation ... an instituted reader must wear the distinctive vestment of their office when they go to the lectern to read the word of God. Those who carry out the ministry of reader just for the occasion or even regularly but without institution may go to the lectern in ordinary attire..." (1981 General Introduction to the Lectionary for Mass, n 54.)

Orthodoxy

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Reader (in Greek, anagnostis) is the second highest of the minor orders of clergy. This order is higher than the Doorkeeper (now largely obsolete) and lower than the subdeacon. The reader's essential role is to read the Old Testament and Epistle lessons during the Divine Liturgy and other services, as well as to chant the Psalms and the verses of certain antiphons. There is a special service for the tonsuring of a reader, although in contemporary practice an layman may receive the priest's blessing to read on a particular occasion. The office of a reader subsumes that of a taper-bearer, and the service of tosuring a reader mentions both functions.

Readers are permitted to wear a cassock, although many only do so when attending services. The reader's vestment is a short phelonion, although the current practice is for this to be only worn at the actual tonsuring, and not thereafter. [1]

See also: Holy Orders