Have you attended church somewhere and had to put up with some bombastic reader, emoting his way through the day’s Old Testament lesson? Or, on the other hand, have you ever strained to hear what a reader is saying up there in the pulpit, guarding the words, and parceling them out sparingly as if they were some secret?
If you have experienced anything like that, you haven’t been to St. Paul’s Cathedral to hear The Word of God spoken to the people of God. We have without a doubt, the best lector corps in the world, and I say that without reservation because I’ve heard a lot of what other congregations have to put up with every Sunday. How very blessed we are to have developed our wonderful group of lectors.
In some ways, they are the unsung heroes of The Word of God section of the Sunday Eucharist. What they do often goes by fairly fast as that part of the service speeds on toward its culminating event, the homily. Sunday after Sunday, service after service, our lectors rise to the pulpit, confident and prepared, to read holy scripture to the congregation. They sometimes get a word of praise afterwards during coffee in the courtyard, often not and their efforts are taken for granted.
In a way, being taken for granted is exactly what St. Paul’s Cathedral lectors strive for. They don’t stand out, they don’t dramatize, and they don’t grandstand once they are up there reading, and as the person who schedules them, I am proud of their devoted effort to expound scriptures in a way that does not feature the reader.
We take our ministry seriously. We are there to read for everyone what scripture has to teach us, and our lectors don’t just pop up out of nowhere to do their job. They study what they are about to read beforehand, noting everything in the reading including commas, and they do their best to have the passage come across as clearly and thoughtfully as possible.
Our lectors are a select group who have prayerfully thought about what gifts they have to give, following the precepts of St. Paul who said that everyone is called to service depending on their talents. Not everyone who gets the itch to read in church has the God-given talent and predisposition for doing so. Our lectors are keenly aware that when readers become actors, the Word of God is no longer coming across, and what is coming across is the reader. We deplore such self-aggrandizing displays, and instead we realize that we are the means of expression for God’s word, and not the expression itself.
We have lector ‘tune-ups’ from time to time, sessions in which we read for each other and gain the constructive advice of our peers as to how we might read even better. Each week, the readings are sent out to the assigned lector who then studies his or her reading, and thoroughly prepares to read in a way that displays their endowment for being a lector. Currently we need lectors for the 8AM Sunday service, for Evensong, and for the Daily Office (8:30 and 5PM daily). Please see me if you’re interested in reading at these services.
Thanks be to God, we don’t have actors reading in church at St. Paul’s. Our lectors are one of God’s manifold blessings, and if while milling around during coffee hour, you get a chance to tell a lector that you appreciated their reading that morning , please do. They’ll greatly value your kind words.
Robert Heylmun would be happy to hear from any aspiring lectors! Look for him at church to learn more about this essential ministry.
