Reader, The Entry Rank Of Orthodox Clergy

Reader is the most junior clerical rank in Orthodox practice, conferred through a brief rite of tonsure and blessing by a bishop, and its holder is responsible for chanting the Epistle reading, the Psalms and other scriptural and liturgical texts during services that are not proclaimed by a deacon or priest, a role requiring accurate command of Church Slavonic, Greek or another liturgical language depending on the jurisdiction, together with the complex system of tones and chant particular to Orthodox worship. Historically the readership, along with several other now largely vestigial minor orders such as exorcist and cantor, formed part of a graded sequence of clerical formation in the early church broadly comparable to, and sharing common roots with, the Western minor orders the Roman Catholic Church later simplified and eventually abolished.

Tonsure to the readership is often, though not universally, the first formal step for a man on the path toward priesthood or diaconate, marking his entry into the clergy proper even though a reader holds no sacramental faculties of his own; many readers, however, serve indefinitely in the rank without proceeding further, particularly in smaller parishes where a trained reader's chanting is itself a valued and ongoing ministry rather than merely a formative stage.