lay reader

a layperson authorized by a bishop to conduct certain parts of a service.

Origin of lay reader

First recorded in 1745–55

Could he introduce it, with modifications, when he next wrote a letter to his brother, the lay-reader?

Howards End |E. M. Forster
I am impelled, I repeat, to depart from my custom of refusing to endorse semi-medical publications intended for the lay-reader.

What a Young Husband Ought to Know |Sylvanus Stall
For years he acted as lay-reader at one or other of those churches, travelling some distance in all weathers to do so.

Reminiscences of a Canadian Pioneer for the last Fifty Years |Samuel Thompson
While they are sitting there a lay-reader expounds to them the elements of Christian teaching.

Changing China |William Gascoyne-Cecil

His parents, who were dead, had been in trade; his sisters had married commercial travellers; his brother was a lay-reader.

Howards End |E. M. Forster

lay reader

Church of England a person licensed by a bishop to conduct religious services other than the Eucharist

RC Church a layman chosen from among the congregation to read the epistle at Mass and sometimes other prayers