The Roman Catholic readers who for many centuries followed a parallel evolutionary path to the reader's of the Orthodox Church have partially followed the path of the Anglican reader as they adapted from a minor-order into an office. The Latin ministry is however rarely used and is, like the Giant Panda may face extinction in the United Kingdom. There is however a revival of the liturgical reader in the USA, where a significant amount of material on the art of reading the scriptures within the liturgy is emerging.

In contrast to its cousins, the Church of England reader has undergone a much broader process of evolution and survived and adapted to a changing environment, such as the significant movement between the Archbishop Parker's Elizabethan injunction that required them to declare "I shall not preache or interprete, but only read that which is appointed by public authoritie," and the modern parochial preacher.

The evidence seems to reflect the development of the type of mammal which takes advantage of the catastrophes of other species because readers have often advanced as a response to the needs of a particular period of time and have shown great reluctance to give up the territory they have gained.