Today's Epistle

It seems like ages since I last served as Epistolator, so I was very happy when Fr. Daniel asked me to read today. To tell the truth I was missing being of service, but I understand too Fr. Daniel's concern of not burning people out and he does not have our previous Rector's preference for numerous servers, almost of "filling the sanctuary."

Nevertheless, it was like old times: light the candles at 10 minutes before the service (our acolytes were absent today), then retreat to the Sacristy to read through the Epistle.

In reading the Epistle in advance I'm not just familiarizing myself with the text and making sure I get the pronunciations correct, though I certainly flubbed the latter today: it is difficult to remember to pronounce "Agar" as anything other than the American pronunciation of the name of that stuff I encountered in high-school biology class.

What I think is most important is to understand what's being said so that the meaning can be conveyed in the reading. I've sat through too many readings where at the end, I'm still in the dark about what was said.

It's a difficult task: we don't write or speak today the way they did then. They clearly did not have grammar school teachers drilling them in the need for short sentences. And the myriad directions the readings sometimes go within the space of just a single sentence... I'm sure (at least I hope!) the clergy have training in reading for clarity, at least in seminaries preparing them for the use of the 1928 BCP and the KJV Bible, but too little seems to get passed on to us lay readers.

Today's Epistle was not one of the easiest (Gal. iv:21), particularly when one reaches the "allegory" clause. It took some study to get the various parts in their proper perspectives, but when I was done I just knew this was going to be one of "those" readings, what typically results when there's no time for preparation, because it remained fuzzy.

So I was surprised when I launched into reading the Epistle, the whole suddenly laid itself out more clearly than I'd ever seen it. Fr. Daniel appeared pleased, and the usual review with my wife on the way home from church was also quite positive.

Now if I can just hang on to that understanding for next year...