Vicar's View

Twenty seven years as a Lay Minister 

On 10th October 1999 I was one of twelve people admitted as Licensed Lay Ministers, then known as Readers, in a service at St. Thomas’ church in Featherstone. A number of people from St Mary’s came to support me and there were members of my family and friends there as well. It was the beginning of a ministry which will end this month, 27 years later.

In a sermon on the Parable of the Sower in July, I referred to how Roger Brooks, then a Reader at St Mary’s, sowed the seed of Reader Ministry in my mind. I had always been active in the previous churches I and my family had worshipped in but had been more behind the scenes as treasurer and by the time Roger made his challenge in 1995, I was churchwarden here.

I completed the three year training course as one of a group of twelve undertaking Reader training in Wakefield Diocese, an interesting and at times quite challenging course with plenty of essays to be written. My tendency to get ‘A’ grades rather surprised me and evidently did not go un-noticed.

I preached my first sermon at St Mary’s on All Saints Day 1999. From then on I have led Sunday worship and preached, taken funeral services and performed the burial of ashes in the Garden of Remembrance. For some years I led the monthly Family Service, then attended by a large number of scouts and guides in addition to our regular congregation.. I also took communion to the housebound and sick and led a weekly home-group. For some years I took Evensong at Cottonstones church once a month and for a year assisted at Halifax Parish Church, as it then was, during an interregnum, preaching at early morning communion or evensong. There was always plenty to do but in fact this all accounted for only around a quarter of what I was actually doing as a Reader.

Two weeks after I had been licensed, I had a phone call asking if I would join the National team of Moderators of Reader Training. This was split into regional groups and the North of England group wanted a newly trained reader to join them. The reason soon became obvious; most of them had trained a very long time ago! Over a five year period we inspected Reader training in each diocese in our area, writing a report which went to the National Moderator before being presented to the Diocesan Bishop who organised a meeting for us to meet with him and his colleagues to discuss its contents. Sometimes this was plain sailing, but if we had found serious faults with the training, the meetings could be tough. Sometimes a bishop would leave us to do his dirty work when things were really bad and certain people needed to be removed from their posts. It could also be tiring work. I remember one evening with Newcastle Diocese when three of us attended an evening session held in North Shields which finished at 10pm. We felt we ought to share our initial feelings after the session so it was 10.30 before we could set off for our homes. The thought of a 110 mile drive at that time of night was off-putting and I couldn’t even remember how to get from North Shields to the Tyne tunnel..



After a cycle of five years of inspections, the National Moderator stepped down. I was approached to see if I would stand for the position. I was tempted and submitted an application. Two of us were interviewed but the other person, an ordained member of the South-East team was selected, quite rightly as his experience of adult education was greater than mine. In fact we became colleagues with me acting sometimes as his number two.

Then came a phone call from Church House, Westminster from an officer who had interviewed me for the National Moderator’s post. A major review of training right across the church known as ‘Hind’ was being launched, there would be a Reader Group chaired by the National Moderator. But the Hind papers said that the Chair of the Reader Group must be a Reader and the Moderator was ordained. Would I chair the Reader group and represent it on the main Hind committee? So for two years I was commuting to London chairing the Reader Group and attending the main committee meetings, where, incidentally, I met Anne Dawtry who would later become the Archdeacon of Halifax and Warden of Readers for Wakefield Diocese. What came out of that amazed me. From the inspection reports we knew that Reader training was a shambles, dioceses doing their own thing, academic levels varying greatly, some courses were University related, many were not. We decided that all Dioceses should have a university devised course, fixing a higher education standard equivalent to a university diploma course, made up of modules for which students could receive higher education credits that they could use towards further study of their own if they wished. A good student could that way gain a degree in theology with one years extra study. The practical side of training, the importance of which we emphasised, was left to individual dioceses to design according to its need. This represented a dramatic change in Reader Training. It was accepted by the Committee and almost unbelievably put into effect nationally within the next five years.

Inevitably, back in 1999 within a few days of having agreed to be Moderator, I was informed that I must join the Diocesan Advisory Group for Reader Training. The first thing we did was devise a formal selection process for those seeking to train as a Reader. A selection panel was established and interview questions devised. Inevitably within a year I was chair of both the Advisory Committee and the Selection Panel. When Wakefield became part of the new Leeds Diocese I offered to step down to allow the new Diocese freedom to devise its own way forward. However, the Diocese indicated that it wanted to adopt Wakefield’s course and selection procedure and simply enlarge them, thus increasing my work three-fold. I did resign in 2019, handing the roles over to the person who had in effect been my number two for many years and who was now the new Warden of Readers for the Wakefield area.

So what have I learned from these 27 years? Primarily that a seed might be sown, but the labelling on the packet may not truly represent what this seed is going to grow into. But for me, it has proved to be a fascinating, and at times challenging role, which put my faith into practice. And that is what being a Christian is about, living our faith.

Thank you everyone, who has supported me over these years.

Geoff