If a "Reader" in the C of E is a lay preacher, what do you call people who read the Scripture at services?

[cassidee]

Apologies for being a pedant. Only ds wants to put in his personal statement for uni that he is on the "reader" rota, as we call it in our church, but he obv isn't claiming to be a lay preacher.

What can he say instead of Reader? Or will Reader be OK I wonder?

TIA

lesson reader

Oh, thanks. It's that simple, is it?

Um, how do we find the extra eight characters? (Oh, hang on, that's not really a religious Q, is it?)

I think "I read out the lesson in church on a rota basis" would probably be more accurate. Though TBH unless the person reading his statement is big in the church, they probably won't know what a Reader is anyway!

Oh if you're short of space definitely go for "lesson reader" I was forgetting the word count, line count restrictions!

Haha, that's a lot more characters, AMIS!

x post. Yeah, nightmare.

I'd go for "I am a lesson reader", which is less characters than "I am on the readers rota"

Could I rather cheekily ask if people think leaving it as "Reader" would be seriously wrong and misleading, and likely to get him rejected by God-fearing admissions tutors? As AMIS says, anyone who isn't a CofE regular probably won't know or care.

(I think we could find the eight characters, if necessary, but...)

Thanks, Bramshott: he's got it as "I serve as Acolyte and Reader" [proud mum emoticon].

I'm afraid I'd go for lesson reader if possible - you wouldn't want anyone to think he is claiming to be something he's not . . .

"I am an Acolyte and Lesson Reader" is only a couple more characters.

Yes, thanks, Bramshott - we can fit that in, too. I agree it would be ridiculous to appear to be claiming to be a Reader proper. This has been on my mind for weeks, I should've got it sorted out before. Anyway I've done the word count now and it's OK.

Then we'll just have to pray he gets the place he's meant to have.

Really, thanks for your help.

The correct term is 'lector' - I am a pedant too.

We can't put that! Atheists will imagine him as Hannibal Lecter! Noooooooooooo...

We have put: I serve as an Acolyte and Lesson Reader. Easy for all to understand. I hope.

University Admissions Tutors will be intelligent people who will know the meaning of 'lector', I promise you. (I suspect many will never have heard of Hannibal Lecter, however... - though it might depend on the subject he's applying for!)

Was going to suggest that using a lower-case 'r' rather than upper-case would perhaps help to convey the sense that he reads in Church rather than that he is a Reader, though it looks as if you have found a solution.

Anyway, surely a 17-y-o is unlikely to be a Reader?

I can guarantee that the worst that will happen if there's any confusion over this will be that he might get asked about it at interview... I mean, no university will say 'Oh, he's a Reader [taken the wrong way], we can't accept him'.

Good luck to him with his application.

I was just being silly, tongue firmly in cheek, TUO. It's just that dh thinks all these CofE terms are truly arcane and pretends not to understand any of them. I do know that admissions tutors will be intelligent people...and that they won't reject him for such minor confusion as whether he's claiming to preach from a pulpit every now and again, or merely read a few verses from the Bible.

I think, however, it's not uncommon for the more idiotic of students to make wildly exaggerated claims, so I didn't want ds to be associated in any way with that kind of behaviour.

As an aside, I was brought up as a Baptist, and you'd be surprised who's allowed to jump into a pulpit and preach within my old community. Confident young would-be uni students would not be excluded.

Oh, don't ... I was being silly too (not about some of the fustier ones having having heard of Hannibal, though... ), hence the . I also think that most Admissions Tutors quickly develop a finely refined bullshit exaggeration detector!

The upper/lower-case suggestion was serious though.

Wishing your ds luck with his applications.

Thank you for your good luck wishes! If we run out of characters, we can do the lower case thing - it is a good idea.

As a Reader, I would suggest lector as well, but mostly I don't worry about the reader rota being called that, most people know the difference anyway! Although in our diocese we're now supposed to call Readers "Licensed Lay Ministers", which is a bit of a mouthful!