License Certificate for a Lay Reader

License granted on 4 November 1903 by Charles Owen Leaver, Anglican Bishop of Perth to Reuben Edwin Morrell to perform the duties of Lay Reader in the parish of Greenough.
A lay reader is a layperson authorized by a bishop in the Anglican Communion to lead certain services of worship or lead certain parts of a service. They are members of the congregation permitted to preach and preside at some services, but not called to ordained ministry.
There had been a lay reader at Greenough since 1880 due to the occasional absence or unavailability of an Anglican minister.
This document has been re-used. Initially it was made out to a Mr R.E. Fall[?] of Victoria Park. Both names have been crossed out and replaced with R.E. Morrell and Greenough. Each time the Anglican minister at Greenough was replaced, the document had to be re-signed. It has been updated with written notations on 23 May 1905 (Rev J.A. Howes), 13 February 1908 (Rev A. Haining), 11 October 1912 (Rev T.E. Whitehead) and 10 July 1916 (Rev E.W. Groser).
The fourth son of Frederick and Harriet Woodley Morrell (nee Davey), Reuben was born at Northam on 11 May 1855. He left Northam in August 1875 and came to Greenough to farm with his brother John. Reuben purchased George Brand’s farm at North Greenough which he re-named Ironbarks. He married Elizabeth Jane Duncan on 14 February 1888 at St James' Church, Greenough, the wedding having to be delayed a week due to catastrophic flooding of the Greenough River. The couple lived at Ironbarks, where they raised a family of four sons and four daughters. Reuben came to be regarded as a “pillar of society.” He served on the
Greenough Road Board for eight years, was a lay preacher for the Church of England, and a keen supporter of agricultural shows as a means of improving farming methods. Reuben died on 10 October 1919 and is buried in the Greenough Cemetery.
Charles Owen Leaver (26 May 1854 – 23 June 1929). In 1894 Riley was appointed Bishop of Perth, then the largest Anglican diocese in the world, with an area of 1,000,000 square miles and a scattered population of about 100,000. Riley arrived in Western Australia on 3 February 1895 and found that the diocese had few clergy, little money, and poor means for organizing religious services for the now rapidly increasing population - due largely to the gold rush. He was young and vigorous and quickly made himself acquainted with large areas of his diocese. It was realised that the diocese must be subdivided, but it was not until 1904 that it was found possible to establish the diocese of Bunbury. Other dioceses were subsequently founded in the north-west and the eastern goldfields, and Riley became archbishop of Perth in 1914.