Laity
[1][2] In both religious and wider secular usage, a layperson (also layman or laywoman) is a person who is not qualified in a given profession or does not have specific knowledge of a certain subject.
[3] 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.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses the term lay priesthood to emphasise that its local congregational leaders are unpaid.
[2] In many Christian denominations, including the Catholic and the Anglican churches, anyone who is not ordained as a deacon, priest, or bishop is referred to as a layman or a laywoman.
[12]In this narrower sense, the Council taught that the laity's specific character is secularity: they are Christians who live the life of Christ in the world.
Doctors, mothers of a family, farmers, bank tellers, drivers, by doing their jobs in the world with a Christian spirit are already extending the Kingdom of God.
According to the repeated statements of Popes and lay Catholic leaders, the laity should say "we are the Church," in the same way that the saints said that "Christ lives in me.
The declaration looked back a decade to the Vatican Council II with appreciation for its "compelling vision of lay Christians in society."
As the Declaration interpreted it, the Council viewed the laity's "special vocation" as being the "leaven" for the "sanctification of the world" in their "secular professions and occupations".
[17] Initiatives: In Support of Christians in the World (January 2015) rejoiced that "50 Years since Vatican II" the increased lay ministry in parishes has "brought fresh vitality".
[22] The term "lay ministries" refers to all the "people of God" (from the Greek laos tou Theou) including the ordained.
The majority are called to serve God and their fellow human beings in some way in the "everyday secular world".
What one's ministry is depends on the abilities of the person: "landscaping, carpentry, writing, counseling, child care, sports, music, teaching, or just being a good listener".
Priests may intend to support their parishioners' daily ministry, but their priority tends to be recruiting volunteers for the church's programs.
[31] Much of the ministry of the laity thus takes place outside official church structures in homes, workplaces, schools, and elsewhere.
Parish musicians, bookkeepers, administrative assistants, sextons, sacristans, etc., are all roles normally filled by lay persons.
At higher levels, diocesan and national offices rely on lay persons in many important areas of responsibility.
Lay persons serve in worship services in a number of important positions, including vergers, acolytes, lectors, intercessors, ushers.
The lay preacher walked or rode on horseback in a prescribed circuit of the preaching places according to an agreed pattern and timing, and people came to the meetings.
The Buddha referred to his disciples as the "Four-fold Assembly" – the gatherings of 'bhikkhū' (monks), 'bhikkhunī' (nuns), 'upasakā' (laymen), and 'upasikā' (laywomen).
In the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, the Buddha famously said that "He would not pass away until the "Four-fold Assembly" is well-established in the learning and practice of Dhamma, and proficient in propagating His Sublime Teachings.
"[45] The movement to help laity apply their faith to daily life has been divided into three eras by David W. Miller in God at Work.
"Although it is not alone through our daily work that we exercise our call, there is a special sense in which we do so in that area, since so much of our lives are spent in our occupations as lawyer, doctor, manual laborer, skilled craftsmen, housewife, domestic servant, student, serviceman.
"[53] In 1988, Dean Reber of the Auburn Theological Seminary wrote a retrospective of the Ministry of the Laity era based on research and survey.
[54] For Miller, "hindsight suggests that the institutional church and its leaders never fully embraced or understood lay ministry".
[55] Miller deems "Faith at Work" to be "a bona fide social movement and here to stay".
