A NEW REPORT to be discussed by the General Synod next month recommends that Readers be renamed “licensed lay ministers”.
The report, Reader Upbeat: Quickening the tempo of Reader ministry in the Church today, is by a review group chaired by the Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Revd Graham Dow. This was set up after the Synod’s debate on Reader ministry in February 2006. The report makes 30 recommendations for implementation at deanery, diocesan, and national level.
The introduction refers to the “vital and outstanding” contribution of Readers to the life of the Church over the past century, and pays tribute to the 10,000-or-so Readers who “quietly and faithfully carry out their work at the grass roots, but are too seldom recognised”. Their work, it says, has often “been neglected, and their potential underestimated”.
It calls for the future of Reader ministry to lie in “a variety of new directions” that are “exploratory, fluid, dynamic, and flexible”, and for Reader ministry to be promoted as the “Cordon Bleu among lay ministries”.
The report recommends that the name of “licensed lay minister” could be accompanied by a working subtitle according to diocesan practice, such as Reader or pastoral assistant. It seeks a framework through which these ministries could be nationally accredited and transferable between dioceses.
The report also discusses the possibility of allowing Readers to administer the sacrament of baptism, after a questionnaire of Readers found that 70 per cent of those polled favoured such an extension of their responsibilities.
It recommends that the House of Bishops clarify the circumstances under which Readers might be permitted to baptise.
The report also looks at the question whether Readers should become deacons, and urges dioceses to provide ongoing support to Readers considering ordained ministry.
Other recommendations include the use of Readers with appropriate pastoral gifts in bereavement care and funeral ministry, in “fresh expressions” of church, and in chaplaincies. It also calls for training programmes for Reader ministry to be more flexible, in an attempt to encourage more young candidates to come forward to be Readers.
The working group included Joanna Cox, National Adviser in Lay Discipleship and Shared Ministry at the Education Division of the Archbishops’ Council; Dr Paula Gooder and Nigel Holmes, Readers and members of General Synod; and Dr Alan Wakeley, secretary of the Central Readers’ Council.