It was his second yellow card, the first coming before he was even involved in the match.
In a warming up run down the touchline he chose to dispute a penalty given in the 12th minute which saw Paul Hartley shoot Bristol City ahead for a lead they clung to with increasing desperation.
Church finally got on to the pitch in the 73rd minute when he replaced Shane Long and his goal came when his shot went in off a post from Jimmy Kebe's right-wing cross.
Caretaker manager Brian McDermott knew all about City's frailty in the closing minutes as his last job before replacing Brendon Rogers on Wednesday night was to draw up the scouting report on them.
For the Royals to have gone away from the match with nothing would have been one of the major injustices of the football year.
The penalty was as soft as they come as Nicky Maynard was heading away from the box when he went down under a challenge from Jay Tabb. Even the Bristol City players looked astonished when referee Mark Haywood pointed to the spot.
Reading's heads did not drop though as they started an all-out assault on the home goal where Dean Gerken needed the sharpest of reflexes to keep them out.
He twice brought off saves inside a minute from the dangerous Gylfi Sigurdsson, one with static defenders looking for offside, the second when Liam Fontaine dithered over a clearance on the penalty spot.
City were soon sending distress signals to the dug out as their three at the back formation came under more and more pressure. Eventually their manager Gary Johnson relented and Bradley Orr and Jamie McAllister dropped back to stiffen the defence.
While they were desperate at the back, City were often inventive going forward, prompted by Paul Hartley and the positional sense of another Scottish recruit, David Clarkson.
The ex-Motherwell striker, who was starting his first game since the opening day of the season, showed some nice touches before being substituted for the final 20 minutes but it was only in stoppage time that the visitors finally scored a deserved equaliser.