From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishlay readerˌlay ˈreader noun [countable] RRCsomeone in Christian churches who is not a priest but who has been given authority to lead a religious service
Examples from the Corpus
lay reader• In 1898 he became a diocesan lay reader.• Unfortunately for the lay reader, battalions had a strange nomenclature.• Ironically, it may, indeed, frighten the lay reader away altogether.• His most striking proposition to the lay reader is that human beings are genetically programmed to learn certain kinds of language. 