This page is very much a 'work in progress'. We are attempting to build up a picture of how far churches in the worldwide Anglican Communion are extending the range of people authorised to lead worship in church beyond the clergy and Licensed Lay Ministers (as Lay Readers are now properly called) to those variously called 'authorised worship leaders', 'lay worship leaders', 'occasional worship leaders' and so on.

The first list is drawn up by searching 'lay' and 'lay ministry' on all the diocesan websites. It includes those where this search led to pages talking about authorised lay ministers, local ministry, mutual ministry, team ministry or some other term which made it clear that the diocese recognises a tier below that of Licensed Lay Minister where those concerned are allowed to lead worship. For the sake of simplicity, these are called lay worship leaders on Lay Anglicana.

Other dioceses may also have such lay worship leaders, but, if they are mentioned on the diocesan website, their pages were not easily reached by this rough and ready method.

It also includes dioceses who have plans to extend their lay ministry, for example by trying to recruit people 'to foster greater partnership between clergy and lay people in local ministry' in the words of one recent Church Times advertisement.

Please post on the Lay Worship Leaders thread in the Forum details of what is happening in your diocese (preferably with hyperlinks to the respective webpages) so that we can refine this overall picture and hopefully add to the list of those dioceses which have taken this initiative.

The following dioceses make special mention of lay worship leaders (by whatever name) on their websites:

Australia
Ballarat, Bunbury,
Canberra and Goulburn,
Perth

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Canada
Huron perhaps
Nova Scotia perhaps

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England
Bath and Wells
Canterbury
Carlisle (particularly helpful)
Chelmsford
Coventry
Derby
Durham
Ely
Europe
Exeter(particularly helpful)
Gloucester
Hereford
Leicester
Lincoln
London
Manchester
Norwich
Salisbury
Sheffield
St Edmundsbury & Ipswich (particularly helpful)
Truro
Worcester
York

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New Zealand
Auckland
Waiapu
Wellington

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At present, no evidence can be found online of lay worship leaders below the level of licensed lay ministers (lay readers) in the following dioceses.

Africa

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Australia
Adelaide, Armidale, Bathurst, Bendigo, Brisbane, Canberra and Goulburn, Gippsland, Grafton, Melbourne, The Murray, Newcastle, North Queensland, North West Australia, Northern Territory, Riverina, Rockhampton, Sydney, Tasmania, Wangaratta, Willochra.

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Canada
Algoma, Arctic, Athabasca, Brandon, British Columbia, Caledonia, Calgary, Cariboo, Central Interior, Anglican Parishes of the, Central Newfoundland, Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, Edmonton, Fredericton, Keewatin, Kootenay, Montreal, Moosonee, New Westminster, Niagara, Ontario, Ottawa, Qu'Appelle, Quebec, Rupert's Land, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Toronto, Western Newfoundland, Yukon

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England
Birmingham, Blackburn, Bradford, Bristol, Chester, Chichester, Guildford,
Lichfield, Liverpool, Newcastle, Oxford, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Ripon & Leeds, Rochester, St Albans, Sodor & Man, Southwark, Southwell and Nottingham, Wakefield, and Winchester

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Hong Kong

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Ireland

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Japan

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New Zealand
Christchurch, Dunedin, Manawa O Te Wheke, Tai Tokerau, Tairāwhiti, Te Pīhopatanga o Aotearoa, Upoko O Te Ika, Waipounamu (?separate entities), Nelson, Polynesia, Waikato,

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Scotland

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United States (ECUSA)
The situation in the USA is complex. According to the Standing Commission on Ministry Development's paper 'Toward a Theology of Ministry', the Episcopal Church does not have a singular definitive theology of ministry. However, The Episcopal Church has a useful page about lay leadership by 'the 99%'

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Wales

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Rest of the World
(Link to page on Anglicans Online)