Laity

In religious organizations, the laity (/ˈleɪəti/) — individually a layperson, layman or laywoman — consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g., a nun or a lay brother.

In secular usage, by extension, a layperson is a person who is not qualified in a given profession or is not an expert in a particular field. The phrase "layman's terms" is used to refer to plain language that is understandable to the everyday person, as opposed to specialised terminology understood only by a professional.

Terms such as lay priest, lay clergy and lay nun were once used in certain Buddhist cultures, especially Japanese, to indicate ordained persons who continued to live in the wider community instead of retiring to a monastery. Some Christian churches utilise lay preachers, who preach but are not clergy. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses the term lay priesthood to emphasise that its local congregational leaders are unpaid.

The word laity means "common people" and comes from the Greek: λαϊκός, romanized: laikos, meaning "of the people", from λαός, laos, meaning "people" at large. The word lay (part of layperson, etc.) derives from the Greek word via Anglo-French lai, from Late Latin laicus.

In many Christian denominations, including the Catholic and the Anglican churches, anyone who is not ordained as a deacon, priest (elder), or bishop is referred to as a layman or a laywoman.

The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) devoted its decree on the apostolate of the laity Apostolicam actuositatem and chapter IV of its dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium to the laity in a sense narrower than that which is normal in the Catholic Church. The normal definition of laity is that given in the Code of Canon Law:

By divine institution, there are among the Christian faithful in the Church sacred ministers who in law are also called clerics; the other members of the Christian faithful are called lay persons. There are members of the Christian faithful from both these groups who, through the profession of the evangelical counsels by means of vows or other sacred bonds recognized and sanctioned by the Church, are consecrated to God in their own special way and contribute to the salvific mission of the Church; although their state does not belong to the hierarchical structure of the Church, it nevertheless belongs to its life and holiness.

The narrower sense in which the Second Vatican Council gave instruction concerning the laity is as follows: