11. The old rank of reader, which was formerly one of the minor orders, was temporarily revived after the Reformation to supplement the lack of clergy, and seems to have been continued in some remote districts till the close of the eighteenth century.[159] It has in recent times been resuscitated as a lay office.[160] Moreover, the practice has of late years increased of the lessons being read in church by laymen at the request of the incumbent, without the express sanction of the bishop. But an incumbent ought not, without that sanction, to permit a layman to take any other part in any service in a consecrated building. The officiating of a layman in an unconsecrated building does not stand quite on the same footing; but, as a matter of Church order and regularity, the approval of it by the bishop should be procured, through the layman being expressly authorised as a lay reader, or in some other manner, especially if the building is licensed for Divine worship. All such laymen must, of course, act with the consent, and under the direction, of the incumbent of the parish. 12. Laymen and women engaged in less formal kinds of parochial work (among which is the visiting of the poor and sick contemplated by Canon 13 as one of their occupations on Sundays and other holy days) are responsible to the incumbent alone, and should act with his permission and under his directions. The Sunday schools, with their superintendents and teachers, are under his sole control. His powers with regard to the religious instruction given in any Church elementary school in the parish depend upon the terms of the trust-deed or scheme (if any) regulating the school, and upon the subsection in the Education Act, 1902, that religious instruction given in a public elementary school not provided by the local authority shall, as regards its character, be in accordance with the provisions (if any) of the trust-deed relating thereto, and shall be under the control of the managers; provided that nothing in the subsection is to affect any provision in a trust-deed for reference to the bishop or superior ecclesiastical or other denominational authority, so far as such provision gives to the bishop or authority the power of deciding whether the character of the religious instruction is or is not in accordance with the provisions of the trust deed.[161] 13. Parochial church councils, where they exist, like ruridecanal and diocesan conferences, rest at present on a purely voluntary basis. Whatever, therefore, may be their advantages, and however desirable may be their incorporation into our regular Church system, the parish clergy stand as yet in no legal relation to them. Footnotes