PRO/1977/06
Procedure for the Reading at an Open Table
- Kind:
- Procedure
- Date:
- 4 April 1977
- Origin:
- Stewardship, North House
- Access:
- Open.
Four hundred words, read after the silence, attributed afterwards. The oldest surviving instruction on the use of the Reader.
Carbon copy · house file · not to leave the archive room
CIRCULAR TO ALL HOUSES PRO/1977/06
PROCEDURE FOR THE READING
1. After the silence one person reads aloud. The reading is not more
than four hundred words. Where the chosen text is longer it is cut.
2. The author and the source are given after the reading and not
before it, so that the words are heard before the name.
3. Nothing is said about the reading afterwards by the person who read
it. Others may say what they like, including that they disliked it.
4. The house may read something not in the Readings for the Table. The
substitution is written in the book: what was left out, what was
read, and the date. No reason is asked for.
5. The reading is not an address, a lesson, or a text for discussion.
It is four hundred words before a meal.
Adopted 4 April 1977. Clause 4 rewritten 1996 to match the printed form of substitution. Otherwise unamended.
Catalogued at the North House · reproduction permitted for study · redactions are not itemised