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• Give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhorting, to teaching. (1 Timothy 4:13)

For two thousand years Christians have read the scriptures—the Bible—in public: initially the Hebrew Scriptures—the Old Testament—and then the letters and gospels in the New Testament as they were written and circulated among the churches. 

The two short pews and reading desks at the ends of the Victorian choir pews on either side of the chancel were originally attached at the bottom of the pulpit, and were used by the clerk and the minister for leading the service and reading from the Bible.