Chris,
Traditionally, a deacon, subdeacon, reader or layperson all do priestless services the same way. I post the following guidelines culled together from various traditions, none agree on all points.
1. All reader's services are to begin with the exclamation:
"Through the prayers of our holy fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen. Some also use this to replace the priest's blessings throughout as well as the dismissal.
2. All the priest's prayers and exclamations are omitted. Some replace the exclamations with "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us."
3. In place of the Greater Litanies "Lord, have mercy" is said twelve times and concluded with "Glory to the Father..." in place of the Little Litany, three times and concluded with "Glory to the Father...". Some simply omit the litanies and replace them with nothing.
4. The Gospel is not intoned, but read in an ordinary voice.
5. The dismissal is read like this:
"O Christ our true God, through the prayers of your most holy Mother, of St.N, Patron of this church, and of all the saints have mercy on us and save us because You are gracious and love mankind."
6. All other hymns, psalms and prayers are read or sung as when a priest serves.
7. Rubrics
The Royal Doors are never opened.
The Hand Cross and the Gospel Book are placed on the Tetrapod.
A censing can be done whenever a censing would normally be done. A full censing is done at:
The beginning of Vespers if part of a Vigil
�Lord I have cried�� at all Vespers
The Polyeleos/Evlogitaria at Sunday Matins
The Canticle of the Theotokos at all Matins
A lesser censing is done at:
O Joyful Light at Great Vespers
The Alleluiarion at Typika
Technically only a hand censer should be used, not a censer with chains, but if you only have a censer with chains don't swing it as a priest/deacon does but simply make the Sign of the Cross with it and bow as you would with a hand censer.
The Icon Screen is censed like this: the Royal Doors first, then the Icons to the right, then the Icons to the left.
The order for a greater censing is: the Tetrapod, the Icon Screen, the Icons on the walls of the Nave, the people, again the Icons of Christ and the Theotokos on the Icon Screen, and then the Tetrapod.
The order for a lesser censing is the same except censing the Icons on the walls of the Nave are omitted.
The MCI also has proposed an order for Deacon's Services that deviates from the above by allowing the deacon to take the Litanies and replace the prebyteral prayers with a monastic ones and make entrances.
http://metropolitancantorinstitute.org/liturgy/DeaconServices.htmlThe MCI reader service page also contaisn an error:
Then "Lord, have mercy" (three times), "Glory, Now and ever", "More honorable", "Bless, O Lord", and the ecclesiarch reads the prayer that follows (either "May God be merciful to us" or "Through the prayers of our holy fathers", depending on the hour being celebrated). The prayer of the priest which follows is omitted.
"May God be merciful to us" should be omitted as that is a priest's blessing. The prayer which follows should be read as it is a monastic prayer not a priestly one. Fr. Whiteford's site confirms this.
Fr. Deacon Lance