St Giles' Church, Reading

St Giles' was one of the three original parish churches, along with St Mary's and St Laurence's, serving the medieval borough of Reading. The church is on Southampton Street, just outside the town centre and in the portion of the original borough to the south of the River Kennet. ]] The original church was built in the 12th century to serve the population to the south of the River Kennet, who found it difficult to reach St Mary's during winter floods of the river. Besides the southern section of the medieval borough, its parish also included the hamlet of Whitley, which then lay outside the borough boundary. In 1191 Pope Clement III gave the church to Reading Abbey and throughout the Middle…

The current Rector of St. Giles in Reading is David Harris, a Canadian. The parish sits within the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Church of England. As it opposes the ordination of women to the priesthood, St Giles is a member of Forward in Faith and receives alternative episcopal oversight from the Bishop of Oswestry.