Jesus stood up to read in the synagogue at Nazareth and after the reading, the Gospel tells us, “all eyes were fixed on him” (St Luke Ch. 4). The thought of Jesus reading to the assembly must surely be inspiring for those who share in this important ministry in our parish. It is wonderful to think that Jesus read and studied the Bible and loved it as a believer – which he was because he was truly man as well as truly God. The Bible is all about Jesus and there we have him reading it as we do. This can help us appreciate that the Bible is to do with man as well as God … it is the word of God, of course, but it is also the word of many because God speaks to us through the human experience of all those well known, and the less well known, writers and personalities of the Old and New Testaments. When a believer reads in church we hear his or her voice and we also hear the voice of God who is present in what is read and in the faith of the reader. To read like Jesus is to love the word of God and to honour it and to want to make it our own.

That said, any member of our parish is welcome to join the Rota of Readers (compiled by Richard and Rhona Carr). It is important to be heard! A few simple rules, if followed, can mean that anyone can read. Our P.A. system is excellent and anyone can be taught to use it.