Question about Readers

vanddharvey

My fiance is Episcopalian but we are getting married in the Catholic Church. To make sure we included people from his family/friends we have one of his friends reading the first reading and the petitions.....but as I got to thinking about it, I wonder if the person doing the readings has to be Catholic as well, or if they can be of any Christian denomination.

Anyone have any info about this?

lisa89760

I was never asked if my readers were Catholic or not.  But I'm not sure if it doesn't matter or if it was assumed.  Sorry I'm not really any help!

jazzybacc

I don't think it matters.  My FMIL is doing a reading (hopefully, we haven't actually asked her yet!) but she's Baptist.  Ask your officiant, but I really don't think it matters.  No one ever asked me what denomination our readers were when we met with the planners at the church.

caitriona87

As far as I know readers do not have to be Catholic but they should be Christian (they have to believe in what they are reading)

bibliophile2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_question-readers?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:615Discussion:8167ac5f-d3d9-4dcb-8001-ac5191f31f52Post:192ca95b-b672-40aa-86f0-a721a6ee6b4e">Re: Question about Readers</a>:
[QUOTE]As far as I know readers do not have to be Catholic but they should be Christian (they have to believe in what they are reading)
Posted by caitriona87[/QUOTE]

I've heard that people should believe what they are reading several times, too. Some girls, IIRC, have even been able to to have Jewish friends do the first reading, since it is within their range of beliefs. As always, though, when in doubt, ask your priest/parish wedding coordinator.

ring_pop

Ask your priest. Mine didn't have any rules about it.

SraChavezCervantes

I would probably include the exact wording at the end of the reading ie. "The word of the Lord" so that they would know what to do.

chrissyinatl

I was wondering the same thing, actually. 

Also I wanted my nieces/nephews all to do "Presentation of the Gifts".  My sister's children are Catholic, my brother's kids are not. 

I will be asking my Priest about this the next time I see him. 

aimers1525

Our priest didn't care if ours were Catholic or not, just that they were comfortable speaking in front of people. He did say though, that it would make sense if they were Christian since they would be reading from the Holy Bible. Our readers were Lutheran, Catholic and non-demoninational. Like pp's mentioned I had the exact wording printed out for them.