(a.) The people, as distinguished from the clergy; the body of the people not in orders.
(a.) The state of a layman.
(a.) Those who are not of a certain profession, as law or medicine, in distinction from those belonging to it.
Example Sentences:
(1) Polling shows that a great majority of the Anglican laity are in favour of Lord Falconer's assisted dying bill, and even some of the bishops I have spoken to here, although they are bitter about what they feel is the unfairness of the argument, are resigned to losing in the long term.
(2) The details also gave succour to critics who say the house of laity has become profoundly unrepresentative.
(3) Philip Giddings, the conservative evangelical who chairs the house of laity, said he was satisfied the new, simplified legislation would be tolerable for his side.
(4) Although female bishops were approved by the majority of dioceses, bishops and clergy, they were rejected by the laity on Tuesday when put to a vote in the synod, the church's governing body.
(5) The problems of the laity and clergy are intertwined, and in the developed world their symptom is obvious: there are not enough of either, and both are ageing rapidly and sustained only by immigration from the south.
(6) In November 2012, both the houses of bishops and of clergy voted for the legislation, but it was rejected by only a few votes in the House of Laity.
(7) The letter read: "We are puzzled, dismayed and very disappointed that for the third time running we have been assigned a bishop of Whitby who does not accept the ordination of women priests … We are aware that some parishes, some clergy, and some of the laity in the Whitby bishopric do not accept the validity of women priests but, as in the rest of the country, a substantial majority of us do.
(8) But there are not enough clergy or laity to serve them, and especially too few Spanish speakers, obliging parishes to try to fill the gap by importing priests from South and Central America.
(9) But it is another example of the way in which the views of a retired bishop with no official position can resonate when they chime with the experience of the ordinary laity.
(10) His teachers in medicine included Corvisart, Bayle, Broussais, and Magendie; he qualified in 1816 with an MD thesis: "On the danger of reading medical text books by the laity"!
(11) The legislation had needed a two-thirds majority in each of the three houses of the General Synod to pass, but, despite comfortably managing that in both the houses of bishops and clergy, it was dealt a fatal blow in the laity, where lay members voted 132 votes in favour and 74 against.
(12) As well as calling on the church to show "real repentance for the lack of welcome and acceptance extended to homosexual people in the past", the report also urges it to think about whether it is reasonable to allow lay people to be in sexually active same-sex relationships while requiring celibacy from its clergy and bishops, saying: "In the facilitated discussions it will be important to reflect on the extent to which the laity and the clergy should continue to observe such different disciplines."
(13) Most dentists are heartily sick of the George Bernard Shaw quotation 'The professions are a conspiracy against the laity.'
(14) The legislation, which needed a two-thirds majority in each of the synod's three houses, was passed comfortably in the house of bishops and clergy but scuppered in the laity by just six votes.
(15) We go back to religion, and she says she was surprised when the laity voted against allowing women bishops last year.
(16) It's bad enough for academics, it's worse for the laity.
(17) Bishop of Grantham first C of E bishop to declare he is in gay relationship Read more In effect, there is one standard for the laity – which is to conform to the liberal norms of society – and a double standard for the clergy who are supposed to be celibate, even when they live with same sex partners, if not heterosexually married.
(18) Nato remains undefeated on the battlefield, but Laity wanted to make clear that the “narrative landscape” represented a new and unfamiliar battleground – one in which Nato no longer appeared to hold a clear advantage.
(19) The laity has been the decisive party in the struggle over female bishops, on both sides.
(20) His position on female bishops has prompted one member of the house of laity, Canon Stephen Barney, to propose a motion of no confidence, which will be debated at an extraordinary meeting on 18 January.