BETWEEN them, these four Readers have put in 100 years of service, nearly all of it in the parish of Holy Trinity, Heath Town, in Wolverhampton, in Lichfield diocese. From the left, David Hunter is a retired head teacher who was first licensed as a Reader in Norwich 48 years ago; the other three have done the whole of their Readership service at Holy Trinity.

Paul Tibbetts, a retired accountant, has done 24 years; Bill Nicholls, a retired company director, also 24 years; and Gill Brackett, who retired early from teaching, four years so far. All of them, the Area Dean, the Revd David Vestergaard, says, have been involved in several areas of the church's work, which, being in an urban priority area "can be quite challenging".

Even so, it is a healthy-sized congregation. It has two services each Sunday morning - one traditional, the other a family service - and the average number of worshippers is more than 100 adults and 30 children. They had a special celebration service for the Readers on 16 June, which had vocations as a theme. The four were presented with certificates signed by the Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt Revd Jonathan Gledhill, and the Warden of Readers, the Ven.Paul Thomas.